Venom-o-us
by madlyinlov3onda
Summary: This is a love story between an alien Symbiote and you, someone who was just a simple receptionist before an accident happened and Venom saved you. Not Eddie Brock, not Lee Price, Venom the symbiote. And whats more romantic than sharing a body together?
1. First Contact

Another smile, another day you avoid death.

At least that's how it seems to go in your current workplace. Every day you deal with the people no one else wants to deal with, and act as the barrier between a possible serial killer and the other employees. You deter robbers, scare away creeps, and welcome regulars, all with the same flash of white teeth.

A receptionist.

You watch the latest potential customer smile back to you, grab a pamphlet to the business, and walk away. Soon as the door shut behind them you relaxed back into your rolling chair with a sigh, and rubbed at your sore cheeks. Yeah, okay, so maybe this isn't what you pictured your life to be like once you moved to New York, but at least you were lucky enough to nab this job. It paid a couple bucks above minimum wage, came with the illusionary title of "Administrative Assistant," and graciously, all of the free chocolate you cared for.

Which when it came down to it, wasn't that much, but it was the thought that counts.

You grabbed one of the Kisses from the glass bowl next to your computer, deciding that the sugar might help your current mood. Though you still took your time with it, methodically pulling at the loose corners of the silver wrapping to release the chocolate within without tearing the foil. You freed the kiss, sat it on your tongue to melt at its on pleasure, and continued to smooth the wrinkles out of the square foil. Boredom was never in shortage at this job as well, it turns out. But better to be bored and safe than in danger and face to face with a monster.

After aliens attacked New York a few years ago things have been even more strange in the city. New types of hazardous people were showing up more often, it was like playing Freak of the Week every monday. Thankfully the chances of encountering one of the freaks yourself were incredibly small, despite being in New York.

Nobody thinks of robbing a massage therapy business. And why would they? Most customers come in for a few hours and only bring a credit card. At max you handle a few hundred cash every few days, but that gets sent away before building up enough to risk going to jail for. So you were safe, bored, and had very low risk. A dream job by anyone's standards in New York.

"Having fun?" A voice slapped you out of your thoughts, and you quickly sat up and put your hand over the perfectly flattened square foil. You looked up to see your boss looking down at you from the other side of the counter.

"Y-yes. I mean, I already finished all of today's paperwork." You quickly adjust your shoulders and look at your boss, motioning to the small folder of client forms next to the computer. "I was just waiting to put them in the file cabinets until later today, when less people are likely to walk in." You clarified quickly, trying to make sure you didn't make your boss regret hiring you.

She eyed the folder with a slight smile, before she walked past the counter to grab her purse. "I'm out for lunch." She said and quickly left you alone once more in reception area. Your eyes followed her out the door and past the window, and you noticed the tv across the walkway showing the news.

Another superhero fight was going on it would seem. It was hard to see with the passersby continuously blocking your view, but from what you could see you could tell Spiderman was the focus. Something blurry and green appeared every few seconds you could actually see the tv, but that only narrowed down the villians to half you knew of. If it even was one of the usuals, hell, it might be someone entirely new.

The door slammed open, causing you to jump in your seat and look to the visitor. A man with a leather jacket -never a good sign- and long black hair glanced into the business a moment before looking back and closing the door as he stepped in. You could feel your chest hammering from the bells ringing in your head, but you bit down your thoughts and stood up at the desk, placing a well practiced smile on your face.

"Hello, how can I help you?" You risked a looking towards the computer, not seeing any new clients for at least the next half hour. The man walked further into the room with the barest hint of a limp, turning his eyes all about, but you noticed that he focused more on the windows than the interior of the room.

So, he was hiding from someone. That wasn't good either.

"Uhh, this is the-" He glanced around again, but you could tell his actions were calculated. It takes an actor to recognize another. "Massage place?" He asked with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. You noticed a single bead of sweat on his brow, and the lump in your stomach grew heavier.

"Yep!" You kept your voice high and cheery. Stall for time. If he is hiding from someone, it means someone more dangerous could be coming. It would be better to just wait it out and not draw attention to here. "I don't see anyone on our schedule for a while, so I assume you were looking to book an appointment?"

He thought a moment before adjusting his jacket and speaking up. "Not quite, I was looking for possibly a gift certificate? It's for someone else." The thoughtful pause between his words made his act even more obvious to you. "How much can thirty get me?"

Your smile faltered for a second. He must have never even been in one of these places before if he thought thirty dollars would be enough for anything. "Not much, I'm afraid." You pulled out a pamphlet and opened the flap to show the prices of the massages. "Our half hour option is thirty-eight dollars, and we go up from there. I suppose we do offer a twenty minute chair massage for twenty-five, but if this is a gift I wouldn't recommend that."

"I see." His eyes flashed down the paper faster than you think anyone could actually read, before he pulled it closer to him and leaned against the counter, casually keeping his back to the door. You watched as his baggy eyes glanced past you to the window once more, and he reached into his pocket.

Your anxiety skyrocketed for a moment before he pulled out his wallet and started fingering through the cash. He pulled out two twenties and put them on the desk. "Alright, give me a card for the half hour then." You nodded, quickly reaching back for the envelope and thick cardstock.

"Is there anyone I should make this out to?" You asked, deftly writing in the amount for the card and the date.

"Ah, no don't worry about that. Their name is hard to spell." He said, and you left that part of the card blank.

You looked up to hand him the gift card, "Alrighty, well here you go, Mister…" You waited for his name in the most polite way you could think, just in case. He looked like he was about to answer, when the wall next to you exploded.

The ground hit you hard, but not as hard as the shower of bricks that came crashing down on you. Smoke filled the air with a ringing alarm, but the floor you were on seemed to spin as you desperately tried to hold onto a conscious thought.

What was happening?

You heard voices shouting, and glass breaking. You blinked and blinked, finally clearing your vision enough to see utter chaos outside the window, and where the wall used to be, you noticed. The man was nowhere to be seen, people outside were scrambling around in panic as flames licked the sides of the buildings. Someone covered in green metal towered above and shoved people out of the way, looking wildly around and shouting things too quickly to make out. The ringing sound in the air seemed stronger when he glanced in your direction, and you realized that it wasn't the alarm going off, it was his suit.

He quickly turned around and darted off, the ringing sound quieting when he did. The pain surrounding your body started to register, but you couldn't call out for help. Your mouth opened, only for no sound to escape you. Your vision started to tunnel, and you realized you weren't breathing.

You inhaled, or tried to, and felt your lungs refuse to fill. Your ribs couldn't move, and you realized the overwhelming weight you felt on you were the bricks from the wall, and you couldn't push them off. Trying as hard as you could, you willed for your hand to move to maybe signal someone, but only burning sharp pains replied.

Then you saw him.

 _Spiderman_.

The red suited hero stood out in your blurry view as he stopped between the buildings and looked at the disaster area. You felt your hope rise as the white what you assumed were his eyes turned to your direction. Yes! Over here! You opened your mouth wider, feeling the slightest bit of air enter your lungs. Almost enough for something.

A chunk of darkness fell from the sky, and the blurry spiderman caught it before dropping it beside him, blocking your view to him. No! He didn't notice you. If only you could call out, he could save you! You weazed out a breath, trying not to focus on the building pain threatening to make you black out.

 _ **Can save you.**_

A voice whispered next to you, and you couldn't tell who it was coming from. You started to notice your limbs getting cold, probably blood. You tried to reply. You didn't want to die.

 _ **Then live.**_

The voice spoke again, and you felt the coldness surrounding you even tighter. The edges of the pain started to lift away, and your vision finally turned to darkness. The last thought you had was of the silent disappointment that a hero didn't save you in your one time of need.

.

You gasped out, flailing in your bed and kicking the sheets around your feet, before you fell hard onto the floor of your apartment. You breathed hard, heart hammering in your chest as you sat in a cold sweat. Thoughts raced in your head in too many directions for you to make sense of anything. You were at work moments ago, and there was some creep buying a gift certificate, and then… then… nothing. Your brain reached out for what came next, but there was nothing there.

You looked at your arms, seeing them shake in the nighttime streetlight coming in from outside. They were fine. Why wouldn't they be? You shook your head and took a deep breath, trying to steady yourself. You couldn't remember anything after the man. Were you drugged? You didn't think you would have drank anything around customers, but who knows what else could have possibly happened.

Maybe you just zoned out hardcore at work after that point, and nothing happened. One could hope at least. Resting your head in your hands for a moment, you let yourself cool off in the cold night air.

Nothing happened. You were fine. You didn't feel hurt or otherwise wrong. In fact, you felt great. You might work for a massage therapy place, but working on the computer all day always left your shoulders sore, until now apparently. Were you sleeping that good?

Why were you awake anyway? You weren't having a nightmare… Not that you remember your dreams much anymore. You hated waking up in the middle of the night, there was never anything else to do other than scroll social media, and that only kept you awake longer.

But it seemed like it was your only current option to get rid of your jitteriness.

You reached out to your nightstand, only to not feel your phone in its usual spot. You blinked, confused, and reached again. Nothing in the surrounding area. You finally turned on the lamp beside your bed and saw that the stand was empty, no sight of your phone. Could you have forgotten it at work? Very unlikely.

You stood up to look at your jacket, only to now notice you were still in your work clothes. How embarrassing. You were grateful you didn't have any roommates to notice at least.

"Pajamas, then tv." You whispered to yourself, starting a simple to-do list to survive the night. Walking to the dresser you found yourself thinking about your freshly cleaned favorite pajamas, but once you placed your hands on the drawer you felt the clothing on you tighten. You gasped and stepped back, looking down in time to watch as the work outfit seemed to liquify and pull itself in different directions, and solidifying into your pajamas.

You froze, not exactly sure what the proper reaction to this was supposed to be. A lump in your throat appeared, and you gently tried to swallow it down. "Huh." Your voice was higher than you intended. You looked around the dark room, double checking just to make sure no one else was here. Nope, no prank crew, no cameras.

Were you a mutant? All of a sudden? The rest of your family was mutants free, but who knows if you got a gene. The gene… that gave you the lack luster power to change outfits. Disappointing, if that was really your superpower. Didn't mutants get powers when they are younger though? Questions filtered through your head, and it was becoming too much.

 _ **Be calm.**_

The voice spoke, and you did the exact opposite of what it ordered. You yelped and fell to the ground, quickly crawling over to your nightstand and grabbing the bat you had propped against it. You looked around wildly for the source of the voice.

 _ **We are safe now. No harm.**_

You could hear how heavy you were breathing in the empty room, and could feel the sweat trickle down your neck. "We?" You asked out loud, not sure if you were going crazy. You knew you were a stressed person, but this was a bit much.

 _ **Yes. We are safe. We saved ourselves, where Spiderman has failed.**_

Confusion made you lower the bat, thinking about those words. All in a rush, the events came back to you. The explosion. The weight of bricks. The green armored man. Spiderman not noticing you.

You fell back onto your rear at the memories, eyes wide as you brought a hand to your mouth. Deep anger started to build up in the back of your mind, but you knew it wasn't yours. "Who… who are you?" You asked.

You felt moisture at your eyes, and felt like you were crying. You touched your cheek and pulled back your hand, seeing sticky black ink drip on an arch. Before your panic could rise, blackness filled your vision.

Then you were falling.

But you weren't yourself. You were… it , whatever it was. The land around you wasn't earth, it was too orange, too broken. Dangerous animals were fighting below you, and you realized you weren't falling, you were flying. Then you were violently hit, and space rushed past you. Things flashed black, and you found yourself alone, weak, until he showed up.

 _He_ who was so heroic, putting himself in harm's way for the benefit of others.

 _He_ who took care of you, taking every chance to use you and enjoy the power you gave him.

 _He_ who you grew attached to, as you gave him everything you were.

 _He who betrayed you._

 _ **Spiderman.**_

You felt the heartbreak of your only weakness being used against you as the one you trusted ripped you to pieces. He tore you off, and left you in the dirt weak and about to die. Until… Until another showed up. Only for spiderman do do the same to you yet again.

The story repeats. You are ripped from people that appreciate you, ones that abuse you, ones that know nothing and ones that know everything about you. Finally the memories slow down, showing a man with long black hair and a leather jacket, the same man that was in your business, getting ahold of you. You trusted him to be good, he was a soldier, someone trained to protect others! And yet, when you desperately granted him power in order for your own survival, he turned it against others, even one he considered a friend. He killed and slaughtered despite you saying no, but he wouldn't let you go.

Until he was weakened, and chased, and hunted.

 _ **We have to save them, they are innocent!**_ You-it-they- shouted. Your other refused, hurting enough on his own, he did not care for the innocent caught in the blast. And so when the sound came and stripped you from him, you took your chance to save the innocent.

That innocent was you.

Actually _you_.

The blackness pulled itself out of your vision and you gasped for breath. You flexed your fingers, trying to ground yourself in reality, trying to remember who you were. You touched your face, bringing yourself back to your own mind, your own memories.

"You are… Venom?"

 _ **We are Venom.**_

The correction weighed heavy in your gut as you realized the gravity of the situation. You saw how the symbiote, which somehow you knew it was called that now, bonded with a host. They were loyal, they protected whoever their other was. And that other, was now you.

You sat in silence for a moment, slowly mulling over your thoughts, before realizing that they were what saved you from death earlier. "I suppose… I should thank you?" You awkwardly asked, still not sure if you were having the craziest dream ever.

 _ **No thanking necessary. We are both innocents Spiderman have failed.**_

The anger built up again, and you felt the heartbreak from the memories ache in your chest. "He's less of a hero than I thought, huh?" You asked quietly, recalling the blurry figure being too busy to save you. Sure, in theory you could understand him not being able to reach everyone when things happened, but you couldn't stop your disappointment from building. He was right there , he only needed to look in your direction and you were sure he would have seen you buried under those bricks.

 _ **He is a hero. Does not make him good.**_

There was a hint of respect in the voice, or was that something more? It was obvious Venom hated Spiderman because how he treated them, but at the same time the desire to be a hero itself was there. One of the good guys, to save people, and bring hope to others. And now it burned in your veins like it did back when you were young.

Superheroes and villains were always so intriguing to you, but you could never fantasize about being a hero for long. The world is too big, too powerful for you to pretend that you could have a impact. There were people that change the shape of earth around them or bend metal with their thoughts, who would have noticed a plain human receptionist stand up to them, when even modern cops didn't even stand a chance? The most you could ever do is pretend to be a deterrent for mildly threatening humans to protect other employees, but you knew you purposely avoided looking at any sort of news because of how useless it made you feel. You weren't even considered strong for a human. You were average.

But now? Now you had leverage. You had something that could make a difference. The thought of it thrilled you. "Can… can we be a hero now? Now that I have you?"

 _ **Indeed. We would protect others.**_

You felt the rush of excitement with the idea of your childhood dream coming true. It felt childish, something that you didn't deserve, something impossible. And yet, memories that didn't belong to you played in the back of your mind. Memories of fighting monsters you didn't know existed, memories of saving an underground civilization, memories of being more powerful than you could have dreamt of. Just the thought of how strong Venom was in his past hosts made your mouth salivate.

Huh. You wondered if that was a side effect of wearing an alien as pajamas.

You wiped your mouth and swallowed, quickly standing up to go to the bathroom. Dream or not, you were ready to charge right ahead with all of… this. "Alright, show me what you… we look like." You spoke, pulling the sliding mirror open for you to get a full body view of yourself.

The pajamas pulled and liquified once more, before darkening and cold black tendrils started climbing across your body. It was rather horrifying to watch, but you stood there and accepted it. Either Venom had already worked itself into you brain to be used to it, or you were much more okay with intimate relationships with aliens than you realized.

The tendrils stacked and climbed up your neck, quickly coating your skin before covering your eyes and mouth. You felt trapped in darkness for just a second, before you felt yourself _change_.

You could feel yourself moving, shifting, as your center of balanced changed and you start to topple forward. Your hand instinctively reaches out in front of you and hits the mirror, catching you as your vision pulls from black to white, before fading to normal… but the shadows of the room don't look quite as dark as they should. You looked into the mirror, to find yourself face to face with a monster.

You couldn't even recognize yourself. For one, you were big . You were never one to work out, but Venom seemed to supply the muscles on their own. They weren't nearly as big as in some of the memories they showed you, but still incredibly impressive. You were also much taller, at least by a foot, if not more.

The oily darkness coated your skin, or maybe it was your skin now, you couldn't quite tell at this point, but the white logo of the spider splayed proudly on your chest, its long legs trailing down your ribs and arms, ending at your hands. And oh my, your hands. They were dangerous looking. Strong, sharp, and deft. The nails on those things looked like they could cut through metal without issue. You brought a hand to your face and observed it closer in the mirror.

Large, messy, white eyes were a defining feature for your face, as they seemed to take up nearly half of it. They looked like blobby versions of Spiderman's mask, if a bit more wicked looking. The other half of your face consisted of a monstrous mouth, which was utterly overflowing with sharp, even more dangerous looking teeth. You ran a nail across them, observing quietly, before opening your mouth.

Like everything else in this change, it was big. You could open your mouth way further than you should be able to, in fact it might be the most unnerving thing about the change, strangely enough. You snap your jaw shut and stand back from the mirror, taking a moment to settle in this new skin.

"We don't exactly look… Heroic. I can see why we- you had a hard time." You stumbled on your words, getting caught up just looking at all of the defined muscles in your arms alone. "But this…think we could get used to this." You smiled, seeing your jaw pull back in an unnatural way.

"Let's go for a test run."


	2. Incubation Period

"We really are beautiful."

You turned this way and that, looking at your new body through the mirror. The tendrils surrounding you seemed to defy gravity and float around even more aggressively at your words. You could feel in the dark corners of your brain hints of excitement different to your own. It made you smile, and you quickly turned to the door to your apartment.

 ** _No door. Window._**

That made you pause. "The… Window?"

 ** _We don't need door. Just jump! We will be safe._**

You sucked air through your teeth, feeling your concern rising as you turned towards the window. Memories that belonged to your other flashed in your mind, leaping between buildings, traveling like Spiderman, falling but never seeming to get hurt. It was comforting, and you slowly opened your window and stuck your head out. "I don't know about this. Shouldn't we learn to walk before trying to run?" Your apartment wasn't incredibly high compared to the others surrounding it, just three stories, but you knew most humans probably wouldn't survive a jump from it.

 ** _Already walked. Time to jump. Trust in us._**

Taking a breath to steady yourself against the window sill, you calmed your nerves and thoughts. Trust. You did trust them, even though you just met. You could feel how closely they embraced you, how you knew they would never let anything bad happen to you. But were you really ready to just sign off your life to an extraterrestrial being, no questions asked? You nodded, figuring yes, you really don't have much else to do anyway, and carefully angled your -now much larger- shoulders through the frame. You grabbed on the brick ledge outside the window, allowing yourself to just go with what felt natural.

You pulled yourself up and out, turning your back to the alleyway and stepping onto the window sill with your feet, before turning and facing the surrounding buildings. The air blew up at you, the sounds of late night traffic coming with it. You looked up to the cloudy sky, seeing the light pollution bounce back to be not as dark as your old home. "... Alright. Let's do this." You looked back down to the alleyway, heart beating harder, and you jumped.

The window sill under your feet cracked as you felt yourself launched into the night air, higher and further than anything as big as you had any right to. The breath in your lungs got caught in your throat as you seemed to fly, before you started to fall. You let out a slight yell as the rooftops rushed at you, but your arms on their own command reached out, and a dark web shot out of the back of your wrist and stuck to a nearby building. Your other hand instinctively grabbed it, and like an oversized pendulum, you swung.

Your yells turned into laughs of delight as you wooshed past the buildings, letting your body work on autopilot as it rode the webbing through the city. It was like the most accelerating roller coaster you've ever been on.

 ** _See? We are doing better than running._**

"Yeah we are!" You cheered, laughing as your arms pulled extra hard on one swing, launching you even higher. "This is amazing! Is this what Spiderman feels all the time?" You asked probably louder than you needed to, but the sound of air rushing by made you feel like you had to speak up. Memories flashed in your mind of being with Spiderman, swinging with him, feeling the casual enjoyment of the rush- the tolling of the bells.

The last memory was violent, jutting into the others and startling you out of the memories and causing you to flinch. Your hand missed the next webbing. You shrieked as you fell a couple feet before your arms quickly reached out and created another web to grab, this time you caught it. You rode the web to its peak before jumping onto the corner of a building, digging your nails into the bricks and catching your breath. "Sorry." You whispered, trying to calm your heart from the panic of falling. "I didn't mean-"

 ** _We slipped._**

You hung to the edge of the building a moment, concerned for your other. "Are… Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?" There was a long silent pause, and you wondered if you asked loud enough.

 ** _No time for talk. Time for being heroes._**

Before you could ask anything more, you felt your grip loosen on the edge of the building. You fell back a moment before your wrist whipped out, and you swung closer to the ground. You realized you weren't so much on autopilot, rather your other just was taking control of your limbs themselves.

 ** _Is that alright?_**

The question shocked you, realizing that your other could indeed hear your thoughts. You quickly nodded, taking care to watch the actions your limbs were making. "Oh, yeah completely. You are the one used to doing this, I have no idea what all we can do." More memories started to flash in your mind, but you shook your head to clear them. "No, no… That's enough memories for tonight. You can take the lead for now, I'll watch and learn. Maybe later you can show me more-" Excitement bubbled in the back of your brain, and you felt your movements change course.

 ** _There! Baddies!_**

You looked down the alleyway you were just about to pass, and saw two men pinning another against the brick wall. Alright, you'll deal with this and then talk with your other about… whatever that episode was. You were down to help it through anything, but you needed to know you weren't about to fall to your death because of some bad ptsd.

Your hand let go of the web and you fell for a moment, jumping off of the edge of the building, and landing loudly a few yards away from the men. They jumped back, one keeping a gun to the stranger's face, and the other pulled out a gun towards you as you slowly stood up. You clinched your fists and suddenly realized how conscious of your actions you were. You thought your other was going to be showing you the basics before setting you loose. You still didn't have the hang of… all this.

"Is that fucking Venom?" One of them hissed under his breath.

You glanced over your shoulder, looking for who he was talking about. "Venom? Oh, us. Right." You quickly corrected yourself and face them, pulling your shoulders back and trying to look intimidating. It seemed to be easy enough, as the one holding the gun your way was clearly shaking and shuffling his feet back.

The other one didn't seem as convinced. "That ain't Venom. Haven't you seen the newspapers? He's supposed to be way more buff than that." He scoffed and waved the gun in your direction. "Piss off, poser. We're busy."

" **Preying on the innocent...**." Your voice spoke without permission, and you stepped forward. A gunshot went off and you reached out to the stranger, thinking you were too slow, only to realize that it was the gun in your direction that went off. You felt confusion for a moment, before the blackness in your chest built and spit out the bullet at the thugs feet. He fucking shot at you! And… and you didn't feel a thing. You smiled, feeling the burning of your anger ready to act.

"Holy shit- it _is_ fucking Ven-hmn!" The guy facing you started to shout, but your fist swung at him releasing a huge glob of the blackness onto his face. He fell back and grabbed at the ooze as his shouts muffled, and the other man yelled and started firing his gun at you, allowing the guy they had pinned against the wall to escape.

You casually watched the stranger run out of the alley way as the thug fired all of his bullets at you, and you slowly turned your gaze back to the now empty gun. " **Innocent saved.** " The sound of bits of metal dropping to the concrete let you know Venom spit the bullets back out, and you stepped forward. The man yelled and turned to flee, but you wouldn't be having that. You reached forward, thick tendrils of blackness extending from your fingertips and coiling around the man before he could make it more than a couple feet. You yanked back and he fell hard on his face before being slowly pulled in your direction.

"Nononono! Come on man! Don't eat my brains! I'll never do this shit again I swear!" He cried as he thrashed in your grip. You pulled him up face to face to get a good look at the trash so ready to unload a clip into some innocent- then what he said finally registered in your mind.

"We… don't eat brains." You quickly said, but there was a hint of doubt in your voice. "Right?" You added aside, quieter and higher pitched than you meant.

 ** _No brains. Not anymore._**

"Yeah no, we don't do that anymore." You said, shaking your head. The man didn't seem convinced, but you tossed the guy onto your shoulder. "Now let's get you and your buddy to-" You looked over to the other thug and noticed he was sitting against the wall completely still with the blob still covering his face. "Wait, oh no." You dropped the guy on your shoulder to the ground as you ran up to the other one, effortlessly tearing the blackness from his face.

His glossy eyes were still open, and he wasn't breathing.

"We killed him." You felt your eyes widen, realizing your mistake. "Venom, we killed him."

 ** _He was not innocent._**

"We didn't know _how_ guilty he was though! We didn't need to- Oh no this isn't good." You brought a hand to your mouth, feeling a bit sick.

 ** _We did good. We saved the innocent._**

"Okay, okay we are going to need to do a _serious_ talk- hurp!" You covered your mouth as you felt your gag, and you quickly stepped away from the body before promptly emptying your stomach against the wall. You didn't feel the usual burn in your throat when you did, but you did feel something in the back of your mind you couldn't identify.

 ** _He is trying to escape._**

You looked back, seeing the thug still wrapped up in the dark tendrils struggling until he noticed you watching him. You honestly didn't know what to do, you just assisted in killing a man. Weren't you supposed to be a hero now? You don't remember reading any news articles about heroes actually killing anyone, at most they get blamed for _failing_ to save people. This seemed wrong.

The man seemed to sweat more the longer you stared at him lost in your thoughts, anxious about being the next victim. You noticed his expression getting increasingly more worried, and you quickly stood up straight. He flinched as you walked over and picked him up, bringing him eye level once more.

"We are going to drop you off at the police station now. You will tell them you are a bad person and you need to be locked up, and if I see you on the streets again, you are going to wish you were your friend right now." You snarled at the man, and he nodded as he whimpered, agreeing to everything you were saying. You rolled your eyes, not sure if he could see it or not, and threw him onto your shoulder again. Venom was quiet.

Okay, so you killed a guy. Sure, he was a thug, but if you kill a killer, doesn't the amount of killers in the world stay the same? Maybe if you killed a _lot_ of killers, the numbers would be better. ...No, wait, you are thinking too much on this. Focus on the bad guy you have right now, and you will figure everything else out later.

You walked to the streets, watching a few cars drive by even though it was so late. Well… You assumed it was late. You realized you haven't seen the time since you woke up. You've never seen New York so quiet before, so one could assume. You started heading deeper in the city, almost enjoying the quiet. There was a few people walking together on the sidewalk in your direction, but once they saw you coming they immediately jaywalked to get to the other side and continued minding their own business. Smart.

After walking a block in silence other than the man grunting every time you adjusted him on your shoulder, you realized you had no idea where the police station would be in this part of New York. You stopped walking and you could feel the man tense up in your grip. "Hmmm…" You hummed, looking down the streets, looking for any hint of a direction. "Hey thug. You know where the cops are?" You felt him shake his head. He could easily be lying, but you didn't feel like trying to interrogate him for just a location.

While looking for signs for the police station, you noticed some payphones built into one of the sides of a building, and that would be good enough. You walked up to them and threw the man down next to them, who let out a ooph at the impact. You quickly tapped the receiver on the phone to see if there was any extra change still in it, but no such luck.

"You have a quarter?" You nudged the man with your foot, rolling him to his back. You saw him staring up at you with the most bewildered face.

"...What kind of fuckin monster are you?" He asked, and you suppose yeah that was fair.

"The new kind, not from here." You bent close to him and started digging through his pockets as he started to struggle against the tendrils again, but they seemed to be much stronger than they looked. Your massive hands were too big for his pockets, only managing to reach in with just your finger and thumb. Lets see… a bag of weed, wallet, extra clip, loose bullets. No change. "What, you never heard of a cell phone?" You grumbled, making sure his pockets were empty.

"Haven't you?" He snapped back, not enjoying the pat down. You huffed and opened the wallet, seeing an id along with two hundred dollar bills and a few twenties. You felt your eyes widen looking at the cash, unbelieving that someone would be holding more than half of your weekly paycheck just on their person. You pulled it out and instinctively brought it close to your chest, meeting a dark tendril to pull it into the darkness of your body.

That is handy, and also gave you an idea. You tossed the empty wallet onto the thug's face and got close to the payphone, jabbing a finger in the pay slot. You could feel Venom's tendrils gush through the opening and search out change. When you pulled your finger back, a quarter followed. Very handy. You put the quarter in the payphone and called the number you knew for the police.

It rang twice before someone answered. "New York City Police, 6th Precinct. How may I assist?"

You cleared your throat and hunched into the phone. "Yeah hey. I uh, caught a bad guy. I'm new to town so I'm just going to leave him by these payphones. Cool?" You heard the person on the other side of the phone react.

"Sorry, what was that?" They asked, voice slightly louder.

"There was a guy trying to shoot someone else, so I stopped him. You are welcome." You looked down at the thug, and he was back to struggling against the bindings. "I'm getting tired though, so like, I don't want to keep looking around to find the station, so I'll just be leaving him at these payphones. Don't worry, I'll knock out the guy for you." The thug looked up at you at that. "Lets see… I'm at… Wait where am I?" You looked back at the corners of the streets, seeing the signs down the road a bit. You surprised yourself at the fact you were able to make out the details. "Right so that's ah... Gones- Ganesvroot. Gansevoort? Whatever- street. And W 13. Oh, west 13, yeah. Those streets." There was a moment of silence before they spoke up again.

"Someone is on their way. Please stay-"

"Nah." You hung up. "Alright thug, gonna knock you out now. Be good with the police and all that." You grabbed the man by his collar again and held him up, and he started thrashing again. "Come on, don't be like that. You were bad and now you are getting your just desserts." You tried comforting him, but he spat at you instead. You sighed. Hey, at least you tried.

Your fist cracked against his cheekbone, and he stopped struggling. You held him a moment and looked closer, worried for a second that you might have killed him. Holding a hand in front of his nose you barely felt his breath, which was better than nothing. "Nice." You propped him up against the payphones, struggling to keep him from just ragdolling onto the ground every time you let go. "Not nice. Come on, work with me here." You continued trying to place him properly for a few minutes until the flash of red and blue appeared behind you, and you saw a police car silently driving in your direction. You expected sirens, so you weren't looking out for them.

Letting the body fall to its own accord, you quickly leapt up and webbed away from the scene as you heard a shout call out from behind you.

The speed and excitement from swinging between the buildings still made you smile, though this time you weren't cheering out loud. You had a lot on your mind, and you had trouble organizing your thoughts at the moment. You also had no idea where you were going.

 ** _Home._**

Venom's voice offered, and you were thankful that they knew where the two of you were going. You never seen New York at this perspective, and you were still new enough here that you relied on your phone's gps for nearly everything at this point. Though eventually buildings started to look familiar, and your apartment complex came into view.

You leapt into the air, turning gracefully and jumping onto the brick wall. You dug your nails in and quickly climbed up to your window, noticing the crack on the sill, and slipped in. You took a deep breath as you stood in your apartment, looking around before bringing a hand to run through your hair.

You blinked, noticing that you actually felt your hair now.

Looking at your hands, you saw the blackness pull away from your limbs and slowly form into your pajamas once more, immediately making you feel warm and comfortable once more. You took a step and felt a slight crinkle in your pocket, and when you reached in the money from earlier was in it.

 ** _We did good tonight._**

"Yeah, okay, about that." You turned around in your room with a raised finger, as if trying to talk to someone else. You needed a face to talk to, unfortunately there wasn't exactly any posters hanging in your room anymore. You notice your reflection on the glass of your turned off tv. Good enough. "We need to talk about killing that guy. Not cool."

 ** _He was not an innocent._**

"I get that, but really we don't know for sure how _grey_ he was, you know? He wasn't evil, that's for damn sure. He was just… mugging that guy? I guess? Holy shit we didn't even ask what they were doing." You realized, bringing a hand to your head. Heroes in tv shows made everything seem so much easier than real life.

 ** _He was ready to kill. Punishment fit the crime._**

"He had a gun, doesn't necessarily mean he was going to use it." You pointed a finger at your reflection. "It might have just been there for intimidation for all we know."

 ** _He shot us._**

Ah, you forgot about that. You dropped the finger and stared at the reflection. "Okay… Yeah I get that. …Huh. You kinda got a point there." You vaguely motioned with your hands and walked around the room, deep in thought. "He _was_ super antsy and had that itchy trigger finger. If anyone else tried interrupting that scene they would have probably been shot and possibly killed as well." You reasoned aloud. "Therefore… punishment fit the crime. Huh. Okay Venom, I'll give that to you. Point one for you."

Part of your mind felt like it was screaming, still trying to comprehend you _killing_ someone tonight- and the fact that you were rationalizing it. The other part, and honestly the larger of the two however, agreed with Venom. In the end, it probably was the right thing to do. You might have not been a tv show's definition of "heroic" tonight, but you saved possible innocent lives of getting mixed up in that situation, and that was something.

You stopped walking around. "What was that about eating brains earlier?" You asked, feeling your eyebrows lower slightly.

 ** _Didn't know better. Needed the Phenethylamine._**

The long word had no meaning to you. It did shock you that Venom said it, seeing as they seemed to have been keeping their language pretty simple so far. "But… You did eat brains at some point?"

 ** _We ate a few, tried not to. Eddie got angry. Don't like making Eddie angry._**

Eddie? You walked over to your laptop and quickly opened it, searching up news relating to Venom. It's been a while since you've looked at actual news, as it used to make you feel too insignificant too often. The only reason you've learned about so many heroes and villains around New York was because of small talk in the reception room.

So when Venom popped up as a cannibalistic villain, it hit you like a brick to the head.

 ** _That was old us._**

Your eyes raced against the words on the screen, reading about Eddie Brock, once a disgraced newspaper writer, turning into a monstrous villain that plagued the city, leaving corpses in his wake.

 ** _We got better._**

You read about his arrest from years ago, and the list of charges released to the press.

 ** _Please._**

You scrolled further, seeing more hideous photos of forms of Venom you weren't shown in the memories.

 ** _That isn't us._**

You closed your laptop breathing hard, trying to fully comprehend exactly what you got yourself into. You were really regretting not paying more attention to the news.

 ** _They don't know about the good we did. The innocents we saved._**

Maybe not, but how much good did one have to do to clean up that much blood? You brought your face to your hands, taking deep breaths and trying to calm down. There was fear of the alien that was attached to you now, sure, but there was a much worse fear turning in your gut.

You just tasted power for the first time in your life, and you knew you wouldn't be able to give it up.

Villain or otherwise.


	3. Prodromal Period

You sat in the dark apartment with your face in your hands for a minute, gut turning from anxiety of everything that was happening. Today you survived an explosion thanks to an alien, but now it turned out that alien was a villain. A murdering, cannibalistic, brain-hungry vilain.

 _ **We aren't like that anymore. We changed.**_

The voice was quiet, sounding not unlike how you picture a guilty dog to sound like. If the dog was guilty of literal dozens of news reports worth of slaughters. You rubbed your forehead, a headache building.

 _ **You are very tired.**_

You were too deep in your own thoughts to listen to Venom. How could this happen to you? You are a receptionist! You lived an entirely normal life up until this point. The only interactions you've ever had with anyone considered superhuman were by watching them through tv. You never even seen Spiderman in person until earlier today, when you were under half of the wall and about to die.

 _ **Please rest.**_

You were so distracted by your thoughts, you didn't notice yourself stand up and climb into bed, pulling the blanket up to your chin. The thoughts racing in your head slowed down just in time for you to notice your actions weren't your own, but when you attempted to sit up the darkness pulled you under.

.

Immediately, you could recognize you were in a dream. You weren't usually one for lucid dreaming, but something was different, and you could feel it. You were sitting at your work desk, hands ready at the computer, staring at the black screen, listening to the silence of the room. Glancing out the window, you saw no one else. Empty streets, turned off tvs, and a slight fog sitting above the swaying yellow grass between the buildings. Your legs itched, and you assume it was from all of the wheat growing from the floor around you.

Again, you could tell that it was a dream, but you couldn't exactly put your finger on it.

The door slammed open, causing you to jump in your seat and look to the visitor. A massive dark mass glanced into the business a moment before looking back and closing the door as it stepped in, details forming the closer it came. It was Venom, but they were _much_ larger than what you saw in the mirror. Their muscles and height easily outmatched what you had previously, looking more dangerous in every way. You could feel your chest hammering from the bells ringing in your head, but you bit down your thoughts and stood up at the desk, placing a well practiced smile on your face.

"Hello, how can I help you?" You risked a looking towards the computer, seeing that it was still off. Venom parted the wheat as they stepped further the room with the barest hint of a limp, and you could see dark liquid sticking to all of the yellow blades as they passed. The darkness slowly dripped, seeming to gradually coat the surrounding wheat one by one.

Venom stepped more into the room, the floorboards under the wheat creaking from the weight. They glanced at the window past you, before leaning onto the counter.

" **Hello**." The voice caused you to freeze, a unnatural sounding mix between the creep from yesterday and the Venom from your head. They smiled with his angler fish-like teeth, leaning more casually onto the desk. " **Don't worry. We will save you from him.** " They smiled even wider than you thought was possible and reached over the counter. Before you could pull back, they grabbed your wrist and pulled it closer to them. They gently placed their other hand on top of yours, staring intently at you with their massive white eyes.

There was a moment of deafening silence as you held your breath, afraid to react with a predator watching your every movement. You could see from the corners of your vision the yellow of the wheat all slowly be consumed by the blackness, working its way around the room, and only slowing when nearing you. The silence ended when the wall next to you exploded, as did Venom. The darkness sprayed into the air before rapidly being pulled around you, a self contained cyclone of the blackness coating you just in time for the shower of bricks to harmlessly bounce off of you.

Instead this time, it seemed like the whole building decided to crash down around you as well. There was absolute silence other than the sound of the blades of wheat being crushed by debris as you watched the supports fall from the ceiling and crash next to you, piles of wood and sheetrock and wires all crumbling into the black grass, which slowly grew and covered the wreckage.

You stood alone in an open field of black wheat, and when you looked up, you could see the galaxy. The entire color spectrum could be found in the mess of stars and space dust, taking your breath as you stood and stared.

It was beautiful.

.

You blinked awake, hearing the small radio on your nightstand quietly playing some old song that you heard before probably a dozen times but you still didn't know the lyrics to. Continuing to just lay in bed with the comforter close to your face, you breathed deeply to gently wake yourself up more, but it felt… off. Humid. Like you were on the verge of choking on your own spit, but not quite at the point of being forced to cough. Confusion only grew when you sat up and swallowed, and the feeling didn't go away.

It was like you were drowning, with no water to be seen.

You leaned forward and tried breathing deeply again, yet you didn't feel your lungs fill like they were suppose to. You weren't suffocating, you seemed to be getting enough oxygen, yet the sensation of drowning gently made itself known. It was _horrifying_ , but then, it wasn't. You found yourself swallowing once more, just to make sure, and then deciding to move on with your life.

You lazily got out of bed and turned the radio off, stumbling towards your bathroom for your morning routine. You brushed your teeth and smiled in the mirror, happy that the fluoride-rich toothpaste seemed to be finally working to whiten your teeth like your dentist said.

It's the little victories.

You turned on the shower and stuck your hand in flow, waiting for the water to get warm. The mirrors quickly fogged up at the heat as usual, but for some reason your usual setting seemed… uncomfortably hot. You brought it down to much cooler than you usually like, and it was perfect. Shrugging to yourself you started to pull at your pajamas, only to yelp when they liquified in your hands, turning to darkness and vanishing within a moment.

You stepped backwards too fast and slammed your back into the wall, staring down horrified at your -now nude- body. "Oh god… It… It wasn't a dream."

 _ **It was not.**_

"Why didn't you say something earlier?!" You asked, looking up to the mirror and quickly covering your privates with your hands at realizing you were with company.

 _ **Didn't have anything to say.**_

"Didn't have anything- are you kidding me?" You slid down the wall and sat onto the tiled floor. "You- you- you are an alien possessing a body of a receptionist and you have nothing to say?"

 _ **Don't like that word.**_

"What, 'alien'? That's what you are, isn't it?" You felt confused, but in the back of your mind you could feel… sadness. Maybe disappointment.

 _ **Possessing. We don't possess. We share. We protect.**_

The words were strained, ever so slightly, and you felt a bit guilty for using such a harsh word. You remembered getting shot at yesterday, and the fact you didn't know you were the target until Venom spit out the bullets for you. "...Okay. I… I'll avoid that word in the future. But you need to understand that all of this-" You vaguely motioned to all of you in the mirror, "is… I don't even know where to begin with this." You sighed and rested your head back on the wall. A moment of silence followed.

 _ **You are different from the others.**_

"Others? You mean the other hosts? No shit. I'm not a wanted murderer." You sarcastically said, and you felt bad for being so hostile. At the same time, you were not having a good morning so far. Memories flashed in your mind once more, but they were different, they didn't belong to Venom. They belonged to the other hosts. They were more cloudy, hazy, and unfocused than the other shared memories.

You were sitting in a church, thinking about writing articles, and a divorce. Getting fired. Getting yelled at by your father. A gun was in your hand. You brought it to your head, only to be saved by the tendrils of darkness.

The world spun, and now you were an army man, still sitting. You sat in a wheelchair, no legs to be seen. The bitter taste of rum still hung in your breath, and you felt hope as you looked at a tube where the dark mass floated. You smiled, welcoming its embrace, but then continuously silencing it whenever it spoke out.

You were yanked to your feet as you stood in an alleyway, a deal going sour as the other party raised their guns. Your instincts kicking in to survive as the army had taught you, looking rapidly for a weapon. Instead the weapon found you.

And then there _you_ were. Much smaller, much simpler than the other hosts. No military or physical training. No desperate situations. No last options of survival. Just a plain, stable life, that would have been snuffed out without anyone taking notice.

 _ **We are better now.**_

You blinked, clearing your head of the flashes of memories quickly. "What?" You asked, and you became aware of the sound of running water. The shower was still on.

 _ **No more brains. No more hurting. No more being used. Better now. Just us.**_

The phrasing made you think. Venom… is better _now_. Meaning they were better before something- or _someone-_ messed them up. The first memory of being used was with Spiderman, the first person they gave their entire being to, only to be torn to pieces and ripped off. That's bad enough, but then the next host was apparently someone who was suicidal. Then people that literally _used_ them as an object, rather than a living thing.

But here you were, talking with it, getting ready for your regular life. No intentions of using it, well, at least after last night's adventure. Not that you were against trying to be a hero- but you weren't exactly sold on the idea of killing baddies yet. And killing seemed to come all too naturally when you were with Venom.

"I need to go to work today." You said, quickly backing out of those thoughts.

 _ **Then we will go.**_

"Can I though?" You asked, standing and looking into the mirror intensely. "You won't make me look like… _that_ , will you?"

 _ **Only if we need protection.**_

"We won't need protection. No hero work today, okay? I'm just going to be a plain receptionist. Then after work… We have some free time to get to know each other a little better." You felt relief wash over you, despite you not being the one feeling tense. Standing in silence for a moment, you listened the water hit the bathtub. Would… these kind of things be awkward with an alien sharing your body?

 _ **It does not matter to us. Do not worry.**_

Deciding to take that at face value and to not waste any more time, you quickly got into the shower and did your usual routine while trying to ignore the fact Venom was… well, with you. You would already be running late for your work as it was, you tended to have your alarm set to the last possible minute- and you just wasted a good few reliving memories.

 _ **We can still make it. We only need to jump.**_

"I don't think going to work as a monster is exactly… lowkey." You mumbled, quickly finishing up and grabbing a towel to dry off.

 _ **Will be fine. We have camouflage.**_

You paused half way through drying your hair. "What now?" You asked the mirror, already getting into the habit of speaking to Venom through your reflection. Dark tendrils appeared at one of your hands, and you quickly pull it in front of you to watch as the darkness tangled and traveled just past your elbow, turning your arm into a gnarled monstrous one with claws.

The reflections from the ooze shimmered, and all at once the details on the hand got... fuzzy, and hard to see. You blinked and tried to focus, only to watch as it looked like your arm faded from existence.

"We can fucking turn _invisible!?"_ You half shouted, waving your arm around. You could just make out the edges of your form where you could see seams to your bathroom wall not quite matching up. You turned yourself around to have the light shining against it, and while very dull, you could only make out the barest hints of where the light was hitting you.

 _ **Not invisible. Camouflage.**_

"Holy fucking _shit!_ " You exclaimed, continuing to wave your arm around. "This is a dream come true. Do you even know how badly I wanted to be invisible when I was a kid? And now we can just _do_ this shit?!" You couldn't help your joyful smile and you squished your arm with your other hand, watching as the world deformed behind it ever so slightly.

 _ **Camouflage.**_

"Okay, okay, _camouflage._ But like, this is a top tier camo job. When I hear camouflage I think blocky army print, not-" You waved your hand in front of your face, feeling the air rush past. "-this! This is outstanding!" You looked at your reflection, slowly calming down after that exciting discovery. Your smile softened, and you dropped the towel. "You… are amazing. I'm not sure you've been told that before."

 _ **Once or twice.**_

"Good, because even though the news doesn't paint you a pretty picture, and even though you have a somewhat… fuzzy definition of being a hero…" You vaguely motioned with your invisible hand, trying to get the right words. "You are out of this world."

 _ **Alien.**_

"No. I mean, yes, you are, but I mean that in the metaphorical way as well. Everything you are doing is straight out of my dreams." You could feel Venom reacting in the back of your thoughts, a warm fluffy feeling almost. Satisfaction of a sort.

A second song started playing from your bedroom, and it startled you out of the conversation. "We gotta go." Before you turned away from the mirror fully, you saw dark tendrils wrap around your body and change colors, quickly becoming your usual work clothes.

 _ **These ones, correct?**_

You exhaled a laugh, running a hand through your hair. "Yes, perfect. Okay, lets-" You turned to the door, but felt a pulling in the other direction.

 _ **Window is faster. Do not want to be late.**_

"Right, of course." You quickly turned around and walked to the window, feeling the tendrils expand and travel across your body, blocking your vision for just a moment. You felt embraced in the darkness, and by the time you were pulling yourself out of the window you had a hard time making out your own hands. You could still see yourself much easier than in the bathroom, but you assume that was because you were fully covered now and was seeing through Venom's eyes.

You looked down at the alleyway three stories below you, took a breath, and leapt.

And once again, you felt the joy of being launched into the air.

Your giggles escaped as your arms automatically reached out and started the process of traveling by web, butterflies fluttering in your stomach as you felt the freedom and rush of soaring above the traffic, hearing the chatter and honking below you.

Glancing down part way through an arc, you could see an accident along your usual road you take, and you couldn't help but laugh. "Pfft, goodbye traffic! Goodbye honking! I ain't never dealing with you again!" You cheered loudly, your yells echoing back to you ever so slightly.

 _ **Camouflage does not mask sound.**_

"Its fine! Everyone in New York is crazy for living here anyway!" You laughed again, changing direction. The buildings got shorter, making you swing low before rolling into a landing on a roof. You took a running leap, easily jumping another couple buildings before you recognized your work building up ahead, and you slowed down. Stepping to the edge of an alleyway, you made sure no one else was in the general area before jumping down, Venom taking the full impact of the landing for you.

You stood up and dusted yourself off as Venom pulled itself back, quickly morphing into your work clothes that you had approved of earlier. Looking at the reflection from one of the dark windows, you saw your usual tuesday self. It should almost be scary how quickly you were able to change from monster to receptionist, but you only smiled and felt yourself filled with glee.

"Okay, okay, work face on." You shook out your excitement and calmed down, looking at your reflection, and you placed your usual smile on. Perfect.

You quickly walked out of the alleyway and headed to your work, and half stumbled in your step when you saw it from eye level.

The wall remaining on the public side was blackened, while most of it was straight up missing. There was a large truck backed up poorly against the curb that was filled with scorched bricks, and a man sitting on the passenger's side was talking to your boss as another man continued placing more bricks into the truck. As you approached, your boss noticed you and called out your name, quickly dropping the conversation and walking up to meet you.

"Thank goodness you are okay!" She said loudly, not quite able to run in her heels but walking up to you briskly. "I was a couple blocks away when it happened, by the time I got back to work you were gone, along with most of the building." She was exaggerating, obviously. It was only the front wall that was mostly missing. "I tried calling you but it went straight to voicemail, are you okay?" She grabbed your hands and looked you over, and you felt awkward with her being so close.

"Yeah, I'm… I'm fine." You took your hands back, not used to the attention. "I- ah, I was on my way to the restroom when it happened, and then the ringing? I don't really remember much after the explosion. I think I was in shock." You quickly came up with a plausible sounding lie.

 _ **Well done.**_

"Did you check in with a hospital? You might have a concussion." She placed a hand on your forehead and you quickly took a step back, awkwardly laughing, definitely not liking all of the touching but trying your best not to offend her.

"No, no I'm fine. I didn't hit my head or anything. I think it was just the sound and everything that happened that must have set me on auto pilot or something. The only thing I remember next is waking up at home this morning." You shrugged casually, which must have been the wrong thing to do because your boss seemed to grow even more concerned.

"I really think you should go see a doctor, just to make sure." She made a face, and you decided to go with it.

 _ **Don't like doctors.**_

"Okay, I'll call sometime later today. But I really am fine." You smiled, but she didn't buy it at all. "You don't need to worry about me, I'm in tip-top shape. No supervillains can keep me from coming to work." You joked, and your boss's face dropped ever so slightly.

"Ah… about that."

 _ **Uh oh. Bad words.**_

"Hmm?" You ignored Venom, feeling your stomach drop from anxiety for what your boss was about to say.

"We won't be needing a receptionist for about… probably a week or so." She said, half attempting at a comforting smile but failing. You felt your blood go cold but you kept your expression frozen in the awkward smile. "I need to be making repairs to the shop and will be keeping the other girls on massage duty, so I don't really… have a place for you while repairs are going."

"Ah." You blinked, trying to keep your heart from pounding so much.

"Don't take this the wrong way, it's just I will be in the front desk area anyway, so I don't want you sitting there listening to all of the construction with nothing to do. If you had a massage license I would put you to work in the back rooms, but…" She left the sentence hanging but you got the idea.

"Okay, yeah no, I get it." You quickly said, waving a hand and trying to play it off. "Like a week you said? No problem."

"Yeah? Okay great!" She smiled, apparently happy you took the news so well. "It shouldn't be much longer than a week, maybe a few days more at most. You can just consider this an early vacation! You deserve it. You have been working real hard lately so I want you to really treat yourself and relax now, okay?" She smiled so genuinely, it was only kind to try and return it. "And please do check in with a doctor." She added.

"Right. I'll do my best." You nodded calmly, despite your racing thoughts. "Ah, is it okay if I look around to see if I can find my phone though? It wasn't at home this morning." You asked, and she quickly stepped to the side.

"Of course. Take your time. I need to finish speaking with those men over there, so if you don't find it just stop by in a week to see how everything is going. I'll try to keep you updated as much as possible." She pat and rubbed your arm in a comforting manner, and you just smiled and nodded and quickly walked to the building, rubbing your arm where she did.

 _ **We have free time now.**_

Venom spoke up when you stepped into the building, seeing the remaining bricks scattered about the ground and the thick layer of dust showing the most recent foot traffic. "Yeah… a bit more than I expected." You carefully stepped around the bricks to get to the counter, not seeing your phone anywhere. You did a quick look-through to see if it was in any of your usual places in back, but no such luck.

 _ **What do we do now?**_

"I… don't know. I don't get much free time, and I spend most of it just reading or playing games if I'm being honest. That feels like a waste with you around though." You admitted. You were still new to the area, your closest real life friends were your co-workers, and that was stretching the definition of 'friends.' "Uh, what do you want to do?"

 _ **Chocolate.**_

Venom spoke quickly, nearly cutting off your question. "What?" You asked, stopping mid-search at the seemingly random interjection. You glanced around, and saw a small bowl holding the kisses next to the computer. Not the glass one, you noted, but it was roughly the same size. "You like chocolate?" You questioned, grabbing one and quickly pulling it out of its wrapper.

 _ **Phenethylamine.**_

There was that big word again. You could only assume it was a chemical in chocolate. Hell, if chocolate was the reason Venom no longer ate brains, you weren't about to question it. You put the unwrapped kiss in your mouth and grabbed a handful to shove in your pocket. The sweetness covered your tongue, and you felt absolute satisfaction with the small treat.

Man, aliens are weird.

 _ **Humans are weird.**_

Fair enough.

Taking a moment to lean against the counter with your eyes closed as you sorted through your thoughts. You had all day to do whatever you wanted, for at least a week, while sharing a body with an alien from space. You slowly opened your eyes and stood up, nodding.

"Yeah… okay Venom, you know something I always wanted to do?"

 _ **Many things.**_

"You aren't wrong, but I think the one I want to tackle tonight is… just walking at night in New York." Once you said it out loud, it felt like a stupid thing to want. "It just seems so pretty at night, but you know… It's New York. And I'm, well, me. But now I got you." Venom was silent for a moment before responding.

 _ **Just walking?**_

"Yeah. Like, I want to wear one of my good outfits, maybe hit up a bar without the whole thought of being alone scaring me out too early, and then just strolling the streets when it's super dark out." You knotted your hands together, some reason anxious about what Venom thought of one of your deepest desires.

 _ **Sounds fun. What should we wear?**_

Huh, you didn't think about that. You did have a few good outfits at home, but then again, Venom could easily make anything you could ever want. That gave you an idea for how to spend the rest of the day.

"Let's go shopping."

.

You weren't a huge shopper normally, rarely going anywhere other than work and home- and the occasional restaurant as a monthly treat, of course. So finding out that most of New York seemed to be shops came more of a pleasant surprise than it probably should have been for someone living here. Sure, most places were set up for tourists, but that didn't make it any less fun.

Your first idea on the walk was to have Venom make a bluetooth set for your ear, so you could talk freely to them without people thinking you were too crazy, not that you were all that concerned with judgemental looks from people in New York. They've seen crazier, not even including the super folk.

Second idea was to finally try some of that expensive city coffee at the local chain. You were more of a tea person by nature, but you decided to at least give it a chance, mostly thanks to the extra cash you found in your pocket. Strangely enough when you were waiting in line, a familiar ringtone played, and you quickly patted your pockets for your phone before remembering you didn't have it. You never been here before, otherwise you would have looked around the shop… You wouldn't think too many people had the same ringtone as yours but then again New York had a lot of people. You quickly forgot about the phone once your name was called and you grabbed the warm cup with the incorrect spelling of your name.

Shame most of the cup ended up being tossed. Coffee, even chocolate flavored fancy-named coffee, still tastes like coffee.

It did give you enough of a rush to continue your walk around, allowing you to mentally take note of some bars you planned on looking at later in the evening, before you finally found a nice clothing store.

You spent a good few hours looking at things, taking them to the fitting room to "try on," and letting Venom just change into them while you looked in the mirror and critiqued everything. It was a lot of fun, you never could afford to be so picky before, and you never would normally touch shirts as expensive as this. Hell, you are pretty sure one of the pants you "tried on" was as expensive as your weekly paycheck, but you quickly reminded yourself that you didn't need to look at price tags any more.

 _ **Too much blue.**_

Venom commented, quickly changing the blue striped shirt you were currently 'wearing' to be more of a greenish color, and it immediately was nicer on the eyes. "What about red?" You offered, and it quickly clouded up with darkness before pulling back into red. "That looks pretty snazzy." You shrugged, posing in the mirror.

 _ **Draws attention. Good or bad.**_

They had a point. You wanted to wander the streets after the bar, maybe you didn't want to attract that much attention. "Alright, we'll go with that one nice grey shirt that paired with that short leather jacket, and maybe the black pants? Simple bar look?" You offered, and your outfit quickly changed to the clothes you tried on earlier.

 _ **We like this look.**_

"Indeed we do." You agreed, turning and looking yourself over as much as you could in the mirror. You nodded and motioned in a circle with your hand, and your outfit quickly changed back to your work clothes. "Thank you." You smiled to yourself before grabbing the perfectly untouched hanging clothes, and bringing them back out to the man behind the desk. Carl, his nametag said, but he didn't much look like a Carl.

"Any winners?" He asked, using a customer voice on you. You laughed casually and shook your head.

"So close, but so far. Thanks anyway." You shrugged and walked out, smiling to yourself.

.

Outfit shopping took up most of the day making it close enough to a reasonable drinking time, and you switched outfits in a restroom and gradually made your way back to the less dense part of town to decide on a bar. You never been to a bar without friends before, so you felt a little rush of excitement when thinking about it. Such a simple thing to get excited about.

 _ **Danger.**_

"What?" You blinked out of your thoughts, caught off guard at your other's urgent voice.

 _ **Someone is following us. Someone dangerous.**_

You had a hard time keeping up the same pace, but you quickly tried to continue to pretend everything was normal. "How long?" You whispered under your breath.

 _ **Don't know. Need to run. Get out of here.**_

If Venom sounded that scared, it was with good reason. You slightly quickened your pace and aimed for the next alleyway, quickly turning the corner and picking up in a run, ready to leap away-

Your ringtone rang out from behind you, followed by a masculine voice calling out. "Hey receptionist!" You stopped, confused.

 _ **Run. Run. Run.**_

Every inch of your body wanted to keep running, but your curiosity got the better of you and you turned around. Just a few yards down at the entrance of the alleyway was the guy from yesterday, right before the explosion. He looked worse for wear, but still wearing the leather jacket and kept his hair nice. He was holding your phone in his hand up next to him, and he smiled. "This yours?"

 _ **Lee. We need to leave. Get out of here. Run.**_

You could feel the nervous energy Venom was giving off and it was nearly overwhelming, but you didn't want to expose yourself as Venom to strangers. "Uh." Your thoughts were too busy trying to calm Venom enough to think of something to say. "I think you are mistaken, sorry man." You shrugged very visibly, and felt distressed when he stepped further into the alleyway.

"Can't be, this looks just like you." He spoke, swiping his thumb to the side and the screen showed one of your rare selfies. You were having troubles being clever.

 _ **Can't be clever with Lee. Lee is clever. Need to run.**_

"Huh, yeah would you look at that." You took a few steps back as he approached, and you held out a hand. "Look man, I don't know what your mom told you about approaching strangers in dark alleyways, but you're making me nervous here. I don't need my phone back that bad." You laughed nervously and he stopped walking, making you feel instantly relieved.

Until he dropped the phone pulled a large and weirdly shaped gun out from his jacket.

It didn't look like any military gun you've seen before, especially for the fact it had a very weirdly shaped… silencer? You never seen a silencer shaped like that before, and you've played plenty of games. "I'm here for what's mine."

"Whoa wha- who- yo Lee calm down! I don't have anything of yours! I only got like two hundred cash on me, but it's all yours man!" You immediately hold out both of your hands and take a few steps back, panic coursing through your veins.

 _ **Uh oh.**_

Uh oh? What's uh oh?

Lee smiled again, tilting his head ever so slightly. "Never did end up telling you my name." You realized your mistake, and immediately turn to jump. You could feel Venom coursing over your body, quickly embracing you and-

A deafening ringing sound knocked you down, causing you to scream as you felt Venom splatter around you. You could feel how cold the air was, making you suddenly very aware of how exposed you were. The ringing vanished and you gasped out for breath, pulling yourself up instinctively and seeing Lee stepping calmly forward, keeping the end of the strangely shaped gun in your direction.

The gun was the source of the sound then, and it really fucking hurt. You stood and brought your hands forward to attack him, but you saw mostly skin. Dark liquid was running in thin rivets along your arms, and most of your body now that you looked down. You could feel Venom pulling itself back together slowly around your feet, but they were quiet. You could feel how hard you were breathing, and you found yourself very, very afraid. You slowly looked back up at Lee, who was just feet from you now.

He was showing teeth, but it couldn't be called a smile. "Look at that, you two aren't even permanently bonded yet. That just makes this easier." His finger tightened, and you didn't know if another one of those sounds would kill Venom. You let yourself stop thinking so much.

You yelled and jumped at Lee, apparently catching him off guard as his shot went wide, blowing out nearby windows. It was a very stupid thing, and no sane person would willingly jump at an armed man when mostly nude. But here you were, managing to tackle him and knock him to the ground. The shock wore out quickly though, and he quickly grabbed your arm and twisted in a way you never experienced before, pulling your elbow above your head, and you quickly found yourself pinned under him hard pressed into the pavement. There was a tense moment, before a sicking POP rattled through your body, and you screamed out as it felt like your arm was just torn off. Your arm flopped down next to you, still connected, confirming he probably just dislocated it, but that didn't stop you from yelling and trying to kick him from the pain it was giving you.

"Oh shut up." You felt him adjust his weight over you and you heard the sound of metal scraping. Something sharp quickly met your neck, but it suddenly jerked and stabbed next to your collarbone instead as his weight was thrown off of you. You cried out, trying to pull yourself up with your good arm but every movement sent pain shooting throughout your body. You pushed and sat on your knees, looking over to see a knife sticking out of you close to your shoulder.

Continuing your not-so-smart streak, you reached up with your good hand and quickly pulled the knife out, before remembering you aren't supposed to do that. "Oh god." You voice was horse as you watched the wound quickly fill with blood and spill over your mostly nude form. This was bad. You quickly looked over and saw Lee struggling with Venom as the dark mass appeared to be smothering him.

You wanted to cheer Venom on, yeah! Get that guy! But god you were in pain. You noticed your phone close by, and you thought maybe calling 911 would be good right about now. Before you could commit to that thought process however, Lee reached out and blindly grabbed the gun again. Without even thinking what you were doing you leapt at the gun to tackle it away from your friend. Forgetting about your lame arm, of course, and you hit the ground much harder than you intended. White pain shot throughout your mind and vision, and you decided that just laying on the gun hopefully was enough.

As Lee's struggles quieted, the rest of the world followed suit.

And thankfully, the pain did as well.

.

The same ol' song woke you up once more, in your own bed, in your own apartment. This time though, no missing memories.

"Venom?" You asked, voice higher pitched than you meant. A moment of silence followed, and you felt your panic rise. You quickly sat up, much too quickly, your arm complained. It wasn't hurting as bad as it was moments ago, but it felt incredibly sore. "Venom?" You asked again, unable to hide the fear in your voice.

 _ **We are here.**_

"Oh thank god." You sighed with relief and fell back into your bed. You wrapped your arms around yourself, the closest you would be able to hugging Venom. "What happened?" You asked, keeping your eyes closed and just focusing on feeling the alien's feelings.

 _ **We lost.**_


	4. Acute Period

You opened your eyes and stared at the ceiling, confused.

"Lost? What do you mean we lost?" You asked, sitting up again and dropping your arms to your sides. Your right arm felt like it was throbbing, especially by the collarbone area. When you looked over at it, you noticed where your pajamas instead took a dark and oozy look, coating your entire shoulder area in pure Venom.

 ** _Means we lost. Did not win. Lee is more dangerous now._**

"How did we lose? We are here, you must have beat him, right?" You questioned, concern thick on your voice. There was a moment of silence, and that made your concern worsen. "Are you okay?"

 ** _You were hurt. We couldn't finish Lee without losing you too. Chose you over Lee. He escaped._**

"Venom, I'm not asking about Lee, I asked if you were okay." You clarified, and their was another thoughtful pause.

 ** _Missing part of us. Was in rush to save you. Got hurt, kept going._**

At that, you scrambled out of bed and nearly tripped yourself running to the bathroom so quickly. You stumbled to the sink and flicked on the light, quickly looking into the mirror. "Missing- He took a part of you!? Are you okay!? How bad is it? Are your hurting?"

 ** _Not hurting now. Not much gone. Enough to be dangerous, and Lee is already dangerous._**

"But you really are okay?" You asked again, touching the mirror and looking for any hints of Venom. Your vision went black and memories flashed in the back of your mind, speeding much too quickly for you to make out anything. Venom was looking for something, and after a little while, they found it.

The scene was too bright and hazy, the colors washed out like someone didn't know the settings of a camera, so it took you a moment to realize it was a memory of your childhood. Back when you were trying to grow your hair out longer, before changing your mind and spontaneously wanting to cut most of it off. You could see your mom- looking much younger than you last saw her- standing behind your child self. She carefully lifted your hair up and gracefully cut at it with the kitchen scissors, letting the hair fall to the tiled ground.

Time quickly reversed a few seconds, and your mom pulled at your darker than black hair, more oily than it should be, and you mom chopped it once more. The scene reset again, but this time your mother painfully yanked at your hair to get you to sit up straight, saying things that were muffled by the memory, before cutting off the thick tendrils of Venom trailing from your head.

The darkness faded from your vision and you snapped back to reality, seeing your present self blinking rapidly through the mirror.

 ** _Felt like that. Fine now._**

You took a deep breath and shut your eyes tight, still trying to get used to all of the rides through memory lane Venom was giving you. "Hhh… Hair. Okay, like cutting hair." You took another quick breath and stood up, looking into the mirror again. "So what does that mean? Are you weaker now? Should I be concerned for you?"

 ** _Should be only concerned about Lee. He is angry. He-_**

"I said I don't care about him. Stay focused." You interrupted your other and placed a hand on the shoulder Venom was covering.

 ** _… Should be fine. Was not much, just a little. Just scared._**

And you could feel it. There was that underlying fear making your heart race, but if it was your fear for the safety of Venom, or fear that belonged to Venom, you couldn't tell. You didn't want to be seperated. You didn't want to be used. You didn't want to kill more innocent people.

You took a step back, realizing that you couldn't quite tell where your thoughts were being influenced by Venom. "Calm down. I'm here with you, right? You saved me, and that means we didn't lose yet. We can get that part of you away from him, and you won't have to worry about that ever again. Okay?" You asked, gently rubbing the symbiote. You looked down, thoughts thinking back to the fight. "After all, it's my fault he got that bit of you. I should have listened to you."

 ** _Yes, but we understand. Lee was also clever, and tried to keep himself from getting exposed to others as well. Did not end up well for him either._**

You bit your cheek, trying to think. "So… He's clever, stronger, and has weapons that can hurt us. How do we beat him?"

 ** _Can't. Not strong enough on our own. We need help._**

"You got friends?" You asked, hopeful. You didn't think Venom would be the kind of alien to make friends, but they were quick to say that you needed help.

 ** _Of sorts. Can lead us to them._**

You felt your eyebrows raise in pleasant surprise, and you quickly walked out of the bathroom and headed towards the window. "Great then lets go-"

 ** _No._**

"...No?" You stopped. "I thought you wanted to get that part of you back asap?"

 ** _We need to get that part of us away from Lee, yes. But you are still hurt. And hungry. We need our strength or we risk worse._**

You didn't even notice you were hungry until Venom said so. "Right, okay… Um, do you want something in particular? I can order delivery." You sat at the couch and opened your laptop, ready to search up whatever Venom was craving, if they even prefered any food other than chocolate. You weren't sure how much of your body was shared afterall.

 ** _Steak. Make it bloody._**

You didn't know what else you expected. "Does… Does New York deliver cooked steaks?" You questioned, quickly typing in an appropriate search for it. Lo and behold, New York delivers everything. The price made you hesitate though, loudly blowing through your lips as you looked at the unreasonable number. Movement got your attention, and you watched a dark tendril reach out of your pajamas and lay a hundred dollar bill on the computer.

"Fine, but just because you deserve a treat." You caved, quickly typing in your address and placing the order. You felt that warm fluffy satisfaction feeling in the back of your head again, and it in turn made you smile. "Now we wait."

You laid down onto your couch, getting the pillow comfortably under your head, and you let yourself relax. Even though your body was comfortable, your mind still hummed with thoughts and questions, and you could feel Venom slightly shifting over your shoulder.

 ** _You want to ask. Go ahead._**

"I was just wondering… If you wanted to talk about what happened with Spiderman, and all of that." You could feel Venom shrink ever so slightly at that, seeming to not like that question. "I only ask because you seemed… troubled, after that memory. And I just want to be aware of any possible triggers you might have after that so I can avoid them for you."

 ** _We are fine._**

Venom was too quick to answer, and you gently rubbed your shoulder to comfort them. "Listen, I've had a shitty therapist and only had like two actual therapy sessions, but even I know it's better to talk about it than just pretend you are fine. I know you aren't, I can feel it." They stayed quiet. "Would you want me to hide a wound from you, if it made things easier for you?"

 ** _No. We heal, and protect._**

"This is no different. Emotional damage can be worse than physical damage, especially to someone that heals from everything." You said, and that seemed to get to Venom. Something changed in the back of your head, a need to share, but then you felt it be pulled back again. "Come on, I'm here for you. That's what friends do."

 ** _It's hard._**

"I get that. Let's start slow, okay? Give me some quick general thoughts when you think 'Spiderman' right now." As you finished speaking, you felt pulled back into the dark memories of Venom, clusters of emotion and experiences more than visuals this time, but you could understand.

Love. Pure, blissful love, burning so unfamiliarly within you. A need to please, to grant his every wish, to impress. You showed off, making him strong, protecting him, making his life convenient. Embracing him fully, and feeling his joy as your own. And the pain- the pain and the ringing and the-

"Slow down. You did good, take a breath." You spoke, pulling the two of you out of those thoughts before you fell too far into the rabbit hole. It felt like you were swimming in the ocean, and at any point a wave could come crashing down a you, but you willed the two of you to stay floating in the currently calm waters.

"You loved him, but he didn't know you were living. What happened to change that?" You prompted to continue, trying to keep Venom slow and steady.

A visit to a doctor. A doctor you've seen before, but couldn't place. They studied the two of you, making Spiderman even more impressed, and you even happier to let him know you were alive. But instead of joy, or confusion, or any sort of attempt of communication, he tried pulling you off. It was an immediate decision. He did not hesitate, did not consider all that you've done for him, and instead he tore through you, desperate to be rid of you. You held tighter, no, no, no please, you wanted to be with him. You can help him more yet, why did he hate you? Why did he hurt you? You just wanted to hold him and let him think about what he was doing, but then the doctor interrupted, hurting the both of you with sound. A gun, not unlike the one Lee had.

You jolt out of the memory as you felt yourself be painfully torn and stripped from Spiderman, bringing you back to the couch and breathing hard. "Oh… That, that hurts…" Your skin stung from the memory like a bad sunburn for a few moments, but it quickly faded as you breathed. You slowly filtered through the memory again, at your own pace, but something threw you off. "There were no bells? I thought I heard bells last time?" You asked softly.

 ** _Was not only time._**

Your eyes widened at that. "You were with him more than once?"

 ** _Escaped doctor. Needed to convince Spiderman we were good. We wanted to help. He did not want us._**

More memories drifted through your mind. Escaping the glass prison they made for you. Tricking Spiderman to be close and put you on, only to try and surprise him and communicate. You came all this way just for him, but he did not even try to listen. He tried running for the doctor again, but you pulled and struggled against him, trying to keep him from the pain, from hurting you again. You just wanted to help. You just wanted to be with him.

But he found himself at church bells, and yelled at you. He screamed, hitting the bells, over and over, yelling how he would rather die than be with you. You couldn't hold onto him, the pain being too much, and you fell away. You expected him to kick you, to run and flee, to do something now that he was free of you. But instead he collapsed. The bells were too much even for him, and as much as the bells hurt, seeing him like that hurt worse. You pulled, and struggled, and carried him away from the bells, your love for him overriding the betrayal, if for a short while.

He did not seem to know you saved him, or if he did, he did not care. Much later when you found someone else to be with, to share and protect, he did the same to them. First the gun, then the bells, then the doctor. Other jumps in the memory flashed by, other betrayals Spiderman had done. Traps he had set up, offering himself to you as bait. The double crosses he led, even after giving you his word and after you helped him. Again and again, he broke promises and lied to you. Hurting you every time without fail.

The memories sped up and faded, giving you the impression that those were different memories for a later time. You cleared your throat and blinked, seeing your apartment around you once more. "Fuck man…" Your voice cracked ever so slightly, and you realized your face felt hot. You sniffed, brushing the back of your hand against your cheek and seeing that you must have been crying during the memories.

 ** _Sorry. We did not mean-_**

"Fuck Spiderman." You interrupted, feeling angry and letting the tears continue to their own volition. You weren't much of a crier, so you couldn't help but wonder if this was how Venom's emotions were manifesting. "He fucking… he doesn't deserve you, after all you done for him. How could he just do that to you?" You took a deep shaky breath, cutting it short when you heard the door knock.

 ** _Food is here?_**

"Yeah." You sniffed again, rubbing at your eyes and making your way to the door. You opened the door and saw a cute ginger wearing the logo of the website you bought the steak off of, and she looked cheery until she saw your most likely red teary face.

"Are… are you okay?" She asked, quickly looking back at the sticky note in her hand and to your door number, as if to make sure she had the right door.

"Yeah. Ex troubles. Sorry, I hope you got change." You wiped at your eyes again with one hand while passing her the hundred, and she quickly dug into her pocket to make change. She said some number that you didn't bother to listen to, and you gave her and extra ten for the trouble before taking the bag and uttering a quick thank you. The door closed slightly louder than you intended, but you dropped the bag onto the table next to your couch, and you sat heavily on the cushions.

 ** _Do you hate Spiderman, for what he did to you?_**

Venom asked, shocking you at that question. "For what he done to _me?_ No, the worst thing he's done to me is not notice me. That is disappointing as hell, seeing how I would have died without you, but that… I can't be angry at him for that. If that was the case, then I might as well be angry at every hero for not noticing me when I was dying." You ran a hand through your hair and leaned back, thinking and feeling the confusion in the back of your head.

"No, I fucking hate him for what he did to _you._ " You ground your teeth. You could feel Venom's surprise at that, but they grew quiet and still in your thoughts. Eventually the smell of the steak seeped through the bag, getting your attention. "Enough of that asshole, let's eat." You quickly pulled out the delivered food, pleasantly surprised at the surplus of fries they gave you along with your rare steak.

You started eating, the flavor of everything was wonderful. The steak practically melted in your mouth, a hint of honey tickling your senses as you swallowed. Venom seemed to like it as well, satisfaction hanging in your mind almost like a haze as you ate. The fries were just the right crispness, no ketchup needed with their delicious salted flavor.

You reached for more of the fries, to suddenly notice they were all gone. You blinked out of your haze, and apparently the steak was gone already as well. "Aw." You uttered, shoulders dropping ever so slightly. "No leftovers." That did surprise you slightly, seeing how much food you had, and how it felt you only had a few bites.

 ** _Was very good._**

"It was. Shame this place is so expensive, else I'd say we could do this like as a weekly thing…" You considered a moment, but shook your head. "I'll see if I can make you some steaks myself later on. I'm not much of a cook, but you probably like that more than you would my usual meals." You looked at the empty tupperware with longing eyes before shutting it up, stuffing it back in the bag, and dropping it into the trash.

You stood in the quiet room, looking around for a moment. You didn't really know what else to do, and you yawned, apparently sleepy from the meal. That wouldn't do, you didn't want to ruin your sleep cycle even more than it already was. You gently slapped the sides of your face, pulled your arms up in a stretch, and swayed side to side to wake yourself up more. Bending down, you touched your toes much easier than usual, and you stood up again and just swung your arms around.

Then you noticed that you arm was no longer hurting.

"Huh?" You asked, looking at your shoulder. Venom was no longer making that area dark and sticky looking, instead it was just your plain pajamas. "Oh, are we better now?" You asked, rubbing the area and not feeling any soreness.

 ** _Was better by the time food showed up._**

"You can heal that quickly?" You asked, amazed. You gently pulled back the collar of your pajama shirt, looking at your perfectly normal looking skin. Not even a scar where you were stabbed.

 ** _Was small wound. Easy._**

"Oh listen to you. 'It was just a stab wound. No big deal.' Do you have any idea how long it takes for people to heal normally? Once I stepped on a nail and my foot was messed up for like a month." You laughed, not enjoying the memory of basically needing to hop everywhere in the house.

 ** _That long?_**

"Yeah, like, I don't know how these heroes do it. They get stabbed or shot, then the next day they are back at it. I mean, I get that a lot of them have armor or advanced healing, but I am surprised more of them aren't out of commission every time villains show up, you know?" You shook your head.

 ** _Don't need to worry for us any more. No out of commission. Just small rests and will be fine._**

"And there you go, being more amazing." You smiled and motioned to the window. "But anyway, now that we are better, should we go out and meet you friend?"

 ** _Yes, my… friend._**

"Way to make them sound ominous, dude." You commented. "But yeah, let's go. We need to get that bit of you back." You stepped towards the window, and felt Venom's tendrils swirl around and embrace you completely. It was starting to feel like a full body hug more than anything at this point, and you resisted the urge to try and hug them back.

Instead you climbed out of the window with more grace than the first time you tried, watched as your limbs vanished from your sight, and again, leaped into the air. You let out your webs and swung, smiling happily as you felt truly free traveling across the city.

"So... your friend." You started, looking towards the direction you had a vague _feeling_ in. "You didn't really tell me about them. I assume they are a villain, you sure they are going to help us?"

 ** _… Hopefully._**

"Oh that's a good sign." You said with playful sarcasm. "That's alright, I trust your decisions. Whatever you need me to, I'll try my best for you." You said, and you thought you felt confusion in the back of your mind. The two of you swung quietly through the buildings, enjoying the rushing air, the sounds of the city, the gradual increase of traffic as most people started leaving their jobs. You had no idea where you were heading, yet you could just feel a pulling in a direction. You hoped that was Venom's "friend," even if you were a little concerned about meeting a friend that needed quotation marks.

You wondered if they were a regular supervillain, or an alien too? What if they were just a regular person Venom genuinely liked as a friend? You found that thought hilarious. They were probably some little girl in a tutu, and she had a pet dinosaur. You laughed out loud, thinking of hypotheticals.

Your laughter was cut short when you saw someone else swinging past the buildings and catch your eye. You changed course and sped up, just in time to make out Spiderman casually swinging down another street. Your anger immediately boiled your blood, and you couldn't wait to give him what he deserves.

 ** _Mustn't kill Spiderman!_**

"I would never kill him! Doesn't mean he doesn't deserve a punch to the face for what he done to you!" You smiled, pulling on your webs with a new goal and launching yourself feet first at the moving red and blue target. "Or maybe a kick would do!" You shouted, adrenaline flooding your system.

"Did I just hear someone-" Spiderman mid-swing turned to face your direction, just in time for your camouflaged foot to connect to his jaw. The kick sent him flying down, crash landing in someone's rooftop garden. You laughed and quickly corrected your course, sending a web to nab the corner of a taller building so you could grab ahold of the bricks. You felt the camouflage drop as you looked down at Spiderman, who was slowly picking himself out of the dirt, seeming very confused.

"That's for breaking my friend's fucking heart!" You yelled down at him, unable to help the absolute satisfaction from kicking the jerk in the face. He shook his head, scattering dirt to the ground, and looked up to see who shouted. Apparently he wasn't expecting Venom, as he jumped ever so slightly, hands widening at his sides.

"I'm guessing that isn't Flash, but that didn't sound like the new guy either!" Spiderman called up. You could see him nervously looking side to side, probably assessing damage control. He looked back to you, seeing you still posed and ready at the corner of the tower, and he was apparently somewhat confused at the fact you weren't attacking him more. "Did… did you want something? Or was this… it?" He made sure to keep his voice loud enough to make it to you.

"Are you in a rush for something? Burning building? Girlfriend in trouble?" You asked, just wanting to make sure you weren't endangering more people with getting some petty revenge.

"Not… not that I know of." Spiderman held up his hands, even more visibly confused now.

"Good." You shouted, jumping from the corner and landing heavily on the flowerbed a few yards from Spiderman. "Didn't want to waste your time." You laughed and looked down at him. He… seemed taller on tv. He half readied his arms now that you decided to get close, but you could tell he was too busy trying to calculate what exactly to do. Did no villains hold a casual conversation before a fight?

"Wasting time… on what, might I ask?" The whites of his eyes squinted in a way that suggested a raised eyebrow. You flexed your fingers, getting ready to act, and you became very much aware at the lack of influence your actions had. Venom was quiet in the back of your mind, waiting.

"Oh you know, justice for a friend, kicking your ass, that sort of thing." You casually said, but before you gave him enough time to react, you reached out and webbed a metal table from the roof, swinging it at him. He easily jumped and flipped over it, landing on some fencing gracefully. His arms reached out, and you instinctivly ducked and turned, just nearly doging two streaks of webs flying past.

"Listen! I don't know who your friend is, but that suit of yours is alive!" He said, jumping and firing more webs at your feet, but you sidestepped and pulled the table back in time to take two of the shots. "You need to get it off of you!"

"And what, try to abandon it like you did?" You kicked the back of the table, launching it in his direction. He barely ducked out of the way, making the metal table burry itself halfway into the brick wall behind him. Damn, you kicked that hard. But maybe that was because you were getting angrier the more you talked to Spiderman. "You didn't even give it a chance to explain itself!" You half growled through teeth, webbing a bag of fertilizer and acting like a trebuchet, launching it at him.

"Whoa!" He jumped to the side, turning his head to watch as the bag literally exploded into dust against the bricks, the residue falling to the streets below. "Not good." You heard him mutter. He jumped off of the building, web flying to another building, and he started to quickly swing away.

"Hey! I didn't kick your ass yet! Get back here!" You shouted, quickly following behind. The two of you weaved between buildings, Spiderman taking the lead and turning corners every chance he got, and you just barely noticed him checking over his shoulder as he did so.

 ** _He is leading us to Bad Place._**

"Fuck you Spiderman! You hurt my friend, and now you are manipulating us again!?" You shouted, taking an extra second to calculate where to web, and taking the shot. The web barely latched onto Spiderman's foot, but it was enough, and you pulled. He yelped as he lost grip on his own web, swinging to your will as you yanked it.

Glass shattered as you swung him into some business building, and you could hear shouts of people. Whoops. Oh well, corporations were paid too much anyway. You jumped down and webbed a window, gracefully arching and swinging into the broken opening, apparently perfectly in time to kick Spiderman as he was picking himself up again. He was punted back, crashing into a support pillar. Damn! You had some serious firepower out of nowhere!

You felt good. Real good.

There were a few people in this what appeared to be an office space, but they were quickly running to the exists, no one seemed to be hurt from you hurling a body through a window. Good. Spiderman struggled to pull himself out of the plaster of the support pillar, crumpling to the ground and coughing.

"Hm. I didn't go overboard, did I?" You asked, glancing around at the destruction of the small area momentarily. You noticed a few computers on a desk nearby that must have belonged to security, due to the fact that cameras of different views were cycling through the screens. You were about to look away, interest being sated, when one of the screens turned to the room you were currently in, and you felt taken back. Why the fuck did you seem… so much bigger?

Before you could question that in more detail, your vision went white as web sprayed your face, and you recoiled. "I hope you liked those few shots, because that's all I'm giving you!" Spiderman shouted, and you felt something heavy collide with you. Whatever it was broke as it hit you, but still made you stumble backwards, and your back hit the desk and knocked over some of the monitors.

You quickly pulled the web off of your face, anger building. "Not even close! You need one more solid smack to the face before I'm through with you!" You shouted, grabbing the desk with your hands to throw at him, but his webs sprayed out, sticking your hands to the desk. You gritted your teeth, using its weight to your advantage and tried to just crush him with it instead. He ducked between your legs as the desk shattered against the ground, and more webbing shot onto your hands. You realized your mistake a moment too late, when he pulled and you fell forward, flipping hard onto your back on top of the wreckage.

"Could you really smack a face like this?" He asked, hovering his masked face above yours. You growled and tried to grab him, but his webs were faster, covering your face and hands and making you lose him in the moment. You yelled and felt your fists expand, bursting through the webbing as you tore it from your face, and you jumped to your feet.

"With what you've done? Easily!" You swiped at him, but he seemed too lithe to get near as he flipped and ducked out of your attacks. "You hurt my friend!" Swipe. "You lied to them!" Miss. "You manipulated them!" Duck. "And when they were happy, you couldn't leave them alone!"

Spiderman jumped onto the ceiling, and paused. "Wait, this might be a stretch here, but is you friend the symbiote?" You took advantage of the still target, grabbing his leg before he could react. You held him in front of you and he quickly struggled in your crushing grip.

" **_Yes._ **" You hissed between your teeth, smacking him hard with the back of your other hand, sending him crashing through another window.

You watched him fall out of view, only for him to appear a few seconds later, quickly webbing away down the streets. You didn't give chase though, and instead took a moment to breath while surrounded by all of the destruction. It was then, that you could feel how _tight_ Venom felt. They felt less like a second skin, and more of a too small wetsuit. It hurt, just slightly, and made you stagger and lean against part of a broken desk.

"H...hey. Is everything okay?" You asked, feeling the drowning sensation even more now. You started to feel the edges of fear, but not so much for yourself, but for your other. Did something happen with it? Was this too much for it?

 ** _Everything is better than okay. We've had hosts that were angry with Spiderman before, and that anger made us stronger, but this is different._**

"How so?" You asked, instinctively trying to swallow the drowning sensation away to no avail. It was warm, too warm.

 ** _We never had someone angry_** **for** **_us before._**

The tightness seeped into your skin, and you had troubles determining where exactly you were suppose end and Venom begin. "A… And? What does… what does that mean?" You felt short of breath, your vision shaking ever so slightly as your world rang louder and louder, drowning out everything. The sound of your heavy breathing, the sound of the desk collapsing under your weight, the sound of you hitting the ground, all being drown out by the ringing.

And the ringing stopped.

 ** _The bond we have will last a lifetime._**


	5. Mal de Coucou

All at once the tightness and pain leaves you, and instead of leaving a hollow void behind, you felt utterly _content_. You gasped out for air you didn't feel like you needed, bracing yourself on your hands and knees as you steadied your breathing out of habit, trying to understand what just happened.

You felt complete. Whole. Like you found something you didn't know you were missing for all of your life.

For the first time in years, you felt at home.

Which was a strange thing to feel, surrounded by broken desks and monitors in some business building you didn't know. And yet, you felt like you were _exactly_ where you were meant to be, and with who you should be with, at that very moment. It was like a weight was taken off of your shoulders, knowing you finally belonged someplace without being a nuisance.

Well maybe that last bit was a stretch. You could hear shouts and loud footsteps coming towards the room, and you assumed that it probably meant you should stop sitting on the floor and get out. You quickly stood up and jumped out of the already broken window just in time for someone to shout out after you, and you let your wrists to their thing to get you away.

The almost too warm air of the midday rushed past you, and you barely registered your own limbs vanishing from view. You allowed Venom to swing you through the city, your own thoughts too stunned and stumbling at the sense of _belonging_ you suddenly were experiencing. You've never felt this comfortable in your own skin before. Something changed, and you felt… contentment. That word in itself seemed taboo on your tongue; you were raised with it being treated like it after all. Just this once, however, maybe it wasn't so bad.

You found yourself descending in your swings, eventually rolling into a landing on the sidewalk still hidden from view with your camouflage. Walking past a bus stop, Venom pulled back from your limbs and into your bar clothes, seamlessly blending you in with the busy life around you. No one around seemed to notice you suddenly joining the crowd, and you continued walking automatically.

"Where are we going?" You asked under your breath, tucking your hands into your jacket pockets and looking around at the tall buildings from the usual view. While you weren't the one leading your motions, you were consciously allowing your other to gently direct you. You trusted them to know what was best for you in you half-stunned state.

 _ **Just walking. Was too deep in thought, did not want to risk falling. Good to slow down.**_

You nodded, thankful for the change in pace. The noises of the city up close felt so much more natural, more like what it should be, and helped you ground yourself a bit more from the floaty headspace you lingered in. You looked at your hand, flexing it and turning it over, seeing old childhood scars littering across it randomly but still where they belonged. You were still you. Despite the sudden… comfort you felt.

Ironically, the comfortableness was what made you the most uneasy.

 _ **Better now. Stronger. Safer.**_

You thought back to what they said after you smacked Spiderman out of the building. "You said we bonded earlier?" You asked, stopping and waiting for the light at an intersection. A majority of the other walkers didn't, and weaved through the cars despite the red man on the light. Oh right, New York. "Like what that Lee guy said? He said something about not having a permanent bond, and how that made something easier for him."

 _ **Exactly. We are one of the same now.**_

You tried thinking of what exactly that meant, but someone shoved past your elbow and you quickly started walking with the crowd again, now aware that the walking man turned white. Two guys were talking too loudly next to you, but you just tried to tune them out as you continued talking with your other. "Sounds like that would have been helpful a few hours ago."

 _ **Most likely.**_

"Sorry it took so long." You felt a little deflated at that, feeling yet again like it was your fault Lee took a part of Venom. There was a sense of coldness fluttering through your chest, and with it a terrible sense of something bad that made it harder to breathe. Your shirt clung just slightly tighter, more comfortably, and the guilt was suddenly reduced.

 _ **Takes emotions to bond. Takes time. Did wonderful.**_

The coldness lifted, replaced by a dull warmth for a moment before fading completely. You felt yourself smile at their words, despite feeling like praise you didn't entirely deserve. Still, you accepted it, and the coldness was kept at bay.

A jackhammer startled you, going off just a couple yards away. You looked up and around the area, noticing the whole section of the road ahead seemed to be blocked off with equipment and bright colored signs. Construction workers yelled instructions to each other, and the noise was hard to ignore. You sped up your pace and turned the corner, trying to get somewhere just a little less dense. Another person shoved past you, and you felt your breathing quicken.

 _ **Chose poor place to blend. Sorry-**_

"I'm fine." You uttered, pushing your hands harder into your pockets despite no more room for them to go. You kept your head bent, eyes low, trying to just keep moving and to get out of here. There was just too much noise, too many people. Someone's hand brushed your arm as they pushed past the loud men, and you felt your fists tightening and sweat building up on the back of your neck. You were never so _aware_ of yourself and the space you took up so much, but now it was all too, too much.

 _ **You are very distressed. Please, slow down. Help can wait.**_

You could feel tendrils inside of your pocket wrap between your fingers, not quite coating your hand but enough to be a presence to get your attention. A gentle squeeze of your hand helped steady you, and you realized Venom was right, you couldn't handle it. You avoided deep city for a reason, and you weren't ready for it yet. Especially not right now. Not when you were so _aware_ of yourself. Glancing up from the shoes around you, storefronts looked much more welcoming than the crowds. You restrained yourself from just shoving past other walkers, gently making your way to what looked like a flower store. It was the closest one, and seemed to have no one immediately in it.

Worked for you. You opened the door, hearing a jingle of a bell with it, and was hit by the wall of cold air from the conditioner. Despite all of the lights hanging above all of the rows of flowers, they were soft enough to actually be soothing compared to the harsh sunlight outside. You closed the door behind you, hearing the bell ring once more. Rows and rows of flowers absolutely filled the shop, more dense near the windows than back towards the desk, where you also saw a welcoming seat. You needed a moment to filter your thoughts, and you carefully made your way past the dangling plants and sat in the chair.

The air, while cold, smelled wonderful and soothed the tension that was building between your shoulders. Good scents were probably expected for flower shops, but then again, you haven't been in once since you were little. You tended to neglect plants just too much to keep them alive, including the cactus your cousin gave you out of a desperate attempt to prove you didn't kill everything you touch. It's not like you took it as a challenge to kill the cactus, but you proved them wrong anyway.

"Shame." You muttered, leaning an elbow against the desk and looking at a pretty little flower next to you. It vaguely looked like a dancing fairy with a bright pink dress, and a purple poofy under skirt. You tapped the flower head with the tip of your finger, watching it bounce slightly at the interaction. The slow movement helped you float in your head just a little longer, until the hair on the back of your neck rose.

"What is?" A voice asked, starling you. You looked up and saw a lady with dark skin heavy with freckles and brilliant amber eyes looking at you. She was just walking out of a door behind the desk, holding a couple pots of other flowers you couldn't recognize in her arms. She placed the pots on the counter without making much sound and looked at the plant you were interacting with. "That fuschia? Yeah, it hasn't been looking too well lately. Think it needs more sun, but my storefront is just a bit too full for it."

You blinked, still recovering from being startled. "O-oh. Yeah, I mean, I was saying it's a shame I kill everything I touch." You laughed, and then noticed your finger was still in its tapping position. You pulled back your hand quickly, connecting what you were saying with your action. She laughed and waved her hand lazily.

"If only I had a dollar every time I heard that, I'd have enough money to open a boutique. Oh wait." She held up her hands in mock surprise, though quickly dropping it and leaning on her elbows to look down at you with a gentle smile. "You'll do fine sweetie. My plants are hard to kill. I'll give that one to you half price if you promise to put it by a window."

Your eyes quickly went down to the price tag, seeing it was already marked at $5. It was a small thing, it could easily sit on your window sill next to your bed. That also meant it could easily be forgotten. Knowing you, you would notice it dead a month from now. You felt the tendrils wrapped between your fingers in your pocket shift, and a slight crinkle was heard as Venom placed money in your hand.

 _ **She wants you to have it.**_

Sighing and running a hand through your hair, you looked up at her with a half assed smile. "You realize you are signing that plant up for its deathbed, right? I killed a cactus, which is basically impossible." That earned a look of genuine shock from her, slowly turning to a smile and then to a bubbly laugh.

"Well, maybe you just needed something more welcoming. Just a little bit of light, a little bit of attention, and that baby will flourish. I'll give you my Camellia guarantee." She winked, and pulled out a pad of paper and started writing on it.

 _ **Camellia is nice.**_

"Camellia? Isn't that a flower?" You asked, not knowing plants but having a gut feeling that you heard that one before. She smiled again, tapping the white rose-looking flower that was in her dark hair.

"You grow into your name, it turns out." She finished writing on the paper and tore the slip off, and you realized it was a receipt. You didn't recall agreeing to buy the plant, but figuring it was just a few bucks anyway you might as well. You spent more on that coffee you ended up tossing yesterday anyway. You pulled out the money Venom gave you, seeing it was a five, and pushed it across the counter for her. She made change and gave you back half of it, true to her word.

You finally stood and put the change and receipt in your pocket without looking at them, feeling them quickly vanish into the jacket itself. "Alright, promise you won't get angry when I kill it?" You half joked, but knew it would be inevitable.

"I'll only be mad if you kill on purpose." She assured, crossing her heart in an X figure with her finger.

You were too socially awkward to stay here any longer, but you could feel warm flutters in the back of your head where Venom resided. "I'll try my best. To not kill it, I mean. Thanks." You gave a quick wave, turning around and walking out of the store with your new friend in your arm.

The warm air outside was not as welcoming as the store, but it was better than before at least. The few moments away from the busy area was just enough to completely pull you from that strange headspace, leaving you feeling a bit tired, but at the same time much better than you've felt in a while. You looked down at the flower again, still confused as to how you ended up buying a plant.

 _ **Will be good to have. You deserve it.**_

Another satisfying bubble of warmth greeted the back of your head, and you can't help but feel like it was reverse of the time you telling Venom that they deserved the steak. You smiled, though you couldn't help but worry if the two of you would start a loop of rewards, and you knew you wouldn't be able to afford it for long. Even if the two of you really did deserve it.

You didn't notice when you started walking on the streets again, though this time you were heading in a different direction. You focused on the flower that was bouncing with each of your steps, and Venom took the lead once more. Construction sounds faded from behind you, crowds thinned slightly, and eventually an unpopulated alleyway came to view. The two of you slipped in, double checking your surroundings for any wandering eyes, before letting Venom coat you once more.

Cradling the small pot like a child, you were careful of your actions to make sure you didn't move too quickly for it, or worse, drop it. You leapt up and started swinging on webs with only one hand. While that made your heart leap into your throat each time you let go of a web before making a new one, you didn't dare risk dropping the fuschia.

 _ **Almost home.**_

Venom spoke quietly, reassuringly, making sure you knew the worry wouldn't last much longer. Sure enough, you saw your apartment appear quickly into view. Instead of going for the window as usual, you were gently lowered to street level and started walking once more. Didn't want to try climbing one handed, you figured, and you continued to walk as your monstrous form. There was a moment of dread when you saw other people around your complex with nothing to duck behind to change quickly, but you realized Venom was just keeping you camouflaged as they aimed for the door.

You opened the door and walked past the greeting center, seeing the guy in charge of the place look up from his newspaper to look at the visitor, only to see no one. He called out a greeting and stood, and his eyes drifting around until they focused on the plant in your hands. Something, you realized, which was not currently getting camouflaged by Venom. His eyes went wide as you continued to walk, stepping through the next door and quickly heading for the stairs. You could hear a questioning voice call after you, but you ran up the three flights of stairs and to your door. Without even thinking you jammed your finger at the keyhole, Venom's blackness gushing in and filling the lock, giving you a satisfying click sound when it unlocked. You stepped into your apartment, and felt Venom shed itself into your comfortable pajamas once more.

 _ **Home.**_

Venom said, and while it was obvious, it still made you laugh. "Yeah, home." You brought the plant up to eye level, turning it around and getting a good look at it. "Seemed like a whole lot of trouble just to get a plant back here." You commented, locking the door and walking to the bedside window. You gently placed it on the sill, angling it to have the flower pointed towards the room for you to enjoy.

 _ **It needs water.**_

You nodded, walking to your mini kitchen and instinctively reaching into your pocket for the daily collected trash. Venom provided you with the receipt from the flower shop and you tossed it to the waste bin, watching it bounce off the edge and land on the ground. You sighed, going over and bending down to pick it up, though this time you noticed sharpie marks on it. Unwrinkling the receipt, you saw 'fuschia' written in one of the bars with $2.50 written in a blue pen next to it, but at the bottom next to the store logo and website, there was a phone number written in sharpie, with Camellia's name under it.

You blinked. Then looked at it closer. "What?" You asked, turning the wrinkled receipt over as if it would have answers hidden from you. It didn't. Venom was shifting as your clothes, feeling like someone was giving you a humored hug.

 _ **We are cute. Must not be so shocked.**_

Body confidence issues aside, you were still having a hard time registering the idea of someone just giving you their number, and so cleverly as well. "She, uh, probably just wants updates on her plant." You shrugged the mystery off, sticking the receipt to the fridge. You could feel the doubt in the back of your mind, but you ignored it and instead got a cup of water for the plant.

"Man… I don't know how to take care of plants." You uttered when pouring water into the pot. Hopefully it wasn't too much for the little flower. Either it was going to die from drowning or dehydration, and you'd hate to let Camellia know her plant suffered from either of those fates. You suddenly felt a weight in one of your pockets, and when you reached in you could feel your phone, though it was slightly cracked.

 _ **Could message her. Ask for help.**_

Help… "Venom. We were supposed to go get help to fight Lee. Instead we bought a flower." You sighed and rested your forehead against the glass of your window. Sure you spaced out a little earlier, but you at least expected Venom to keep you on track. You looked over the alleyway and buildings you could see, noticing that it was probably a couple hours from sundown. That didn't seem right.

 _ **We bonded. Is very important to take care of ourselves after.**_

"More important than stopping Lee?" You asked in earnest. Venom seemed so scared of the fact Lee had a part of them, that Lee had a dangerous weapon he wasn't afraid to use. Yet, here they were, allowing you to slow down and smell the flowers. You could feel conflicting emotions bubbling, but the strongest one was sureness.

 _ **Yes. Bonding in heat of battle makes us strong, but brittle. Needed time to adjust, time to recover.**_

Brittle. Venom possibly meant unstable, and you could see that easily happening to you earlier had Spiderman not fled. The floaty mindspace you were in after you bonded was… strange, and like nothing you experienced before. You wondered if that was what happened with other hosts. Maybe that was why there were so many deaths behind Venom's name. "Are we good now? I'm feeling better now for sure, but I still think you are right in worrying about leaving Lee alone for too long."

 _ **Better now. However we are hungry.**_

Again, you didn't notice your hunger until Venom pointed it out. Your stomach growled almost like it was notified. "We'll get fast food on our way over to your friend, no more steaks for today." You stepped to your window once more.

.

The two of you were currently swinging through the darkening town, large paper bag in one hand while focusing on the other for swinging. Venom's tendrils reached out of your body to grab the burgers one by one, feeding you as you swung closer to your destination. The first time Venom used a tendril to grab a burger it threw you off, but you found yourself quickly getting used to the convenience of having extra limbs. Damn, if only you could have more arms in regular life too. That would just make all of your reception tasks so much easier.

Eventually a building you could recognize as a the place you were aiming for could be seen in your path, and you quickly stopped your swing. It looked like a regular building to you, though the furniture you could see through the tinted windows seemed to be very fancy. Golden cat decorations, large red comfortable looking chairs, artwork on walls that undoubtedly cost more than yearly rent. Who the hell could afford any of this? You took another bite out of a burger offered to you, finishing it in one oversized chomp, before mentally questioning why you were here.

 _ **Black Cat is strong, has friends. We know her. She doesn't know us. Not now.**_

"Black Cat?" You tried thinking about that name, only remembering it mentioned once in the waiting room. She was… an art thief? Venom's memories flipped through your vision, showing you a tall woman with white flowing hair and a skin-tight black jumpsuit. Slowly she placed her hands on your shoulders, looking like maybe she was a bit _more_ than just friends with one of the hosts.

 _ **Spiderman has history. We can pose as him to get close, then ask for help.**_

That actually seemed like a solid idea. You quickly finished the last of the burgers and crumbled the paper into a ball, and one of the tendrils pulled it into your suit, effectively making it vanish with no hints of it on you. You had no fucking idea how Venom worked.

Ignoring the urges to see just how much Venom could hold in itself, you quickly shook out your nerves and held out your hand to watch the change. The monstrous arm shifted and shrank, the tendrils realigning to be much closer to your normal skin. You looked at your reflection in the window, seeing that while you still could recognize your own body, it also seemed to imitate Spiderman's angular shape a bit. It wouldn't fool anyone for long if they got close, but if you kept yourself slightly obscured and quick to the point, it would get the job done.

You waited another moment, confused. "Why are we still black? I thought we were posing as spiderman?" You asked, looking down and seeing you were still wearing the dark suit with the white spider logo. The details of the seams and fabric were perfectly imitated, and it really looked like you were wearing a real suit, rather than being Venom.

 _ **Don't care for his other suit. Looked better like this.**_

That almost made you laugh. "While that might be true, Spiderman was wearing red and blue earlier today. If Black Cat knows him, then she'd know that." You pointed out, and you could practically feel the groaning coming from Venom. The darkness shimmered, and slowly colors pulled their way up your limbs, effectively giving you the best spiderman cosplay ever.

That was better. "Alright, let's get to Black Cat and-" You stop speaking when you looked back at the expensive looking room and saw someone with long white hair sitting on a chair, faced away from the window. She must have came in the room when you were busy changing. She also appeared to have a visitor.

 _ **Lee also knows her.**_

Your stomach dropped when you recognized the same leather jacket and combed dark hair. You could see that they were talking, and you had a bad feeling in the back of your head. "We took too long getting here." You whispered, quickly climbing up the building to be more out of their sight. "I don't think Black Cat is going to help us now. Any other friends?" You asked, trying to keep optimistic.

 _ **My son… would be bad idea. Nevermind.**_

"Hold on, you have kids?" You had to suppress your surprised volume. You never expected Venom to have… offspring. Memories of red gore flashed through your mind, and it took you a moment to realize the gore had a face not entirely unlike Venom's. Bodies that were torn to pieces and left in red pools decorated the background of the memories, looking more like a battlefield than New York.

 _ **Carnage is… a monster. Would be too dangerous.**_

You shook your head out of the bloody memories, glad you weren't the one to point that out. "So… You really don't know anyone else that could help?" You asked, the last of your hope slowly dwindling. You weren't exactly excited at the thought of fighting Lee on your own again, he knew Venom's weakness better than you did, never mind the fact he had a part of them now.

 _ **Not here. Not now.**_

"Oh boy." You muttered, leaning against the window. Looking to the window again you saw your reflection look back, and that gave you an idea. "Huh. Venom, you know who Spiderman really is, right?" Before the question was even finished Venom was searching through memories, offering you visions of a thin looking guy with curly brown hair.

 _ **Peter Parker.**_

"And you know where he lives?" More flashes of memory, and there were a few apartments that came to mind. Apparently he moved around a lot. Venom focused on the most recent one. It was more into the city, close to Parker Industries. "Huh. Explains that, I suppose." You closed your eyes and filtered your thoughts, slowly coming up with a quick plan.

"Alright, let's get some pizza."

.

"Why does all elevator music sound the same?" You wondered aloud, adjusting the grip on the pizza box you were holding. The elevator was a slow ride up to the level Peter lived on, giving you time to rethink your plan. Deliver pizza, say your sorry, see if he would help you out. It's not like you were a real supervillain, you just kicked his ass a little bit. And sure, he was an asshole, but you were willing to forgive that at the moment if he was willing to help Venom. What could go wrong?

 _ **He will not help us.**_

"We don't really have anyone else. Besides, it doesn't hurt to ask." You said, but the clothing around you shifted in disagreement. You adjusted the collar of your Venom-made pizza delivery shirt, but kept your eyes to the the electronic number that was slowly going up. Almost there.

 _ **It could hurt a little.**_

"We'll be fine. We kicked his ass before, we can do it again." Though to be fair, you literally were just trying to kick his ass, nothing more. If he thought you were a real threat, he might have fought differently. Though there was a chance he actually was just that easy to beat, in that case getting his help wouldn't actually be that useful to you.

 _ **He has friends. Dangerous friends.**_

"Then if we can win him over, they can help us too. Even better. Lee won't know what hit him." Venom was quiet at that. The two of you stood in silence for a few more seconds, and the doors opened to the hallway. You put on your customer service face, pulled out your sticky note, and quickly walked to the apartment number that Venom remembered.

It was the last apartment down the hall, a corner room. It probably had one hell of a view compared to your alleyway facing one. You ignored that thought and gave a couple knocks to the door, hearing no immediate response. Then you realized there was a good chance that he was out as Spiderman instead of being in his apartment. That was actually more likely, now that you thought about it. If that was the case, you would need to re-think your plan. Did you want to break in and wait for him? No, that would immediately make him see you as a threat. Maybe if you just overlooked the building until he showed up… But who knows how long he could play hero.

Before you could get too deep into your new planing thoughts, the door opened a crack.

"Yeah? Can I help you?" Spiderman's voice asked, and when you looked into the crack you could see light brown eyes looking back. He looked down at you, seeing the pizza box and outfit, and slowly opened his door more. He was currently wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, and also seemed to be nursing an already yellowing bruise on the left side of his face. You had to resist the urge to flinch at that.

"Mr… Parker?" You asked, looking at your sticky note and pretending to not know exactly who he was. His eyebrows lowered in confusion.

"That's me, but I didn't order pizza." He ran a hand through his brown hair, which seemed to be currently suffering a case of hat hair. You nodded and looked down at your sticky note again.

"It's from a, er, it just says V? Not sure if you know them or-" You glanced up and saw Peter's face pale, and his knuckles on the hand holding the door open whitened as well. "There's a note here for you, if you want me to read it." You offered, acting like you didn't notice his panic.

"Y-yeah. I mean, go ahead." His voice shook ever so slightly at first but it quickly composed itself.

"Right, so it says 'Hey Parker, sorry I totally kicked your ass earlier, you are a jerk. But also I need your help, and I can't turn to anyone else. Here's my phone number, give me a call when you are done with the pizza.' And there is a number at the end." You stuck the note to the box and offered it to him.

His breathing seemed incredibly controlled, and his deathgrip on the door didn't loosen for a moment. Eventually he stood properly and accepted the pizza, jaw tight. He took a quick breath to pull him out of his thoughts and looked back up at you. "Right. Thank you. Um… Do I need to pay or…?"

"No, V paid and tipped for it already. Enjoy your pizza." You gave him a smile and started walking away. You were half way down the hall when you heard the door finally close, and you glanced over your shoulder to make sure. Yep, he went back into his apartment, pizza included. You bolted down the rest of the hallway and into the stairwell, quickly letting Venom coat you properly and you leaped up the rest of the levels to get to the roof doorway. You wasted no time running across the roof to the corner that his apartment would be at, and intently looked down the windows. One side faced the beautiful street, the other had a fire escape that lead down to a much cleaner alleyway than the one you are used to.

He would either call, or try to run. Either way, you would be ready. And thanks to the setting sun, you would be hidden from view soon enough even without camouflage. All you had to do is wait.

And wait.

And wait.

"Jesus christ how long does it take someone to eat a pizza?" You finally grumbled after what felt like an hour. You were leaning lazily on the corner of the building with your arms dangling off the sides, struggling to keep your attention to the windows with how boring it was.

 _ **Told you he would not help.**_

"He's a hero, he's supposed to help everyone." You protested, but you couldn't help but feel the 'told you so' feeling in the back of your head.

 _ **Maybe he is plotting how to betray us. Like he always does.**_

"Hey if that happens, at least we can get the job done and leave before he does anything." Being honest, that was best case scenario for you. He knew Venom was back, and the fight from earlier today probably didn't put you in the best of lights. Even so, you couldn't quite bring yourself to regret kicking his ass when you did. He deserved it.

 _ **We should-**_

You felt a vibrating come from your hip, and you quickly reached down to meet a tendril that handed you your phone. You accepted the call and put it on speaker phone.

"Where are you?" Peter's voice asked.


	6. Mimeomia

"This Spiderman?" You asked the phone even though you already recognized the voice.

"Don't-" He stopped himself short with a slight sigh. "Yeah. It's Spiderman. Answer the question." Well _someone_ was a little rude.

"I realize this might come off as a threat, it's not, but I'm on your roof." You sat comfortably on the ledge, feeling no need to activate Venom's camouflage. Spiderman needed to see that you weren't trying to be a threat, but you still had Venom coat you. No sense in giving your identity away right out of the gates. Spiderman was a dick, but there was no knowing at how much of a dick Peter Parker would be. There was silence on the other line. "I just want to talk. If you want to join me up here, that probably would be best. I can also come down there if you-"

"No, I'm on my way." He replied, and you could hear the slight echo of his voice from the phone. Must be in a hallway. "Just a talk, right? You don't want a rematch or anything?" You huffed a laugh at that. 'Rematch.' As if the last fight wasn't anything but an ass beating.

 _ **This is a mistake. We should run.**_

"No rematch. Earlier was just me kicking your ass for being a dick, I wasn't actually trying to, you know… Fight fight." You vaguely motioned with the phone to no one, having troubles coming up with the right words while ignoring your fight or flight alarm. The fingers you had resting on the wall casually clawed at the brick, making little scratches as the rough texture calmed your nerves. The sound of the door opening through the phone got your attention. You turned towards the doorway to the stairs in time to see it open fully, white webbing shooting out and sticking your hand to the wall.

You sighed and closed your eyes, packing down the last of your nerves before looking up towards the stairway. "Really?" You asked, but didn't move to pull your hand free. Let him take his comforts where he needs them. You hung up the phone and let a tendril pull it back into your body, and you continued to sit comfortably on the ledge. Spiderman stepped out of the doorway, closing it behind him with his foot, and he kept his arms posed and ready for more webbing.

The eyes on his mask were narrowed, and you could see him looking around on the roof for any sort of trap. You rolled your eyes and crossed your non-webbed arm casually across your chest. After a moment of nothing but night traffic noises filling the air, he finally spoke. The first thing Spiderman said in person to you chilled you to the bone. He said your full name.

 _ **He's going to betray us.**_

You dropped the arm, feeling your eyes widen as the rest of your body tensed up. You could feel Venom coursing over and around you, winding you up, ready to strike. It took most of your willpower to not leap at his throat right then and there. Instead, you carefully steadied your voice, and asked the only appropriate question. "What?" His white eyes locked to yours, and you could see he purposely kept his distance and kept walking on the roof.

"That's your name, right? Unless you stole someone else's phone." He clarified, and yet again you realized your mistake far too late. You gave him your actual phone number- not a burner, not a phone booth- your cell phone that you use on a daily basis. He knew who you were probably just by googling your number.

So much for keeping your identity secret.

You could feel your chest grow cold as panic seeped in. He knew your name. He would know where you work, where you lived. He probably knew who you were related to because you don't even know the last time you changed settings on Facebook. This was bad, but then again there was a chance you could use his knowledge to your advantage. You could roll with it and use it to gain his trust. Of course he would want to know your secret identity, you know _his_ after all. It wasn't fair for you to be able to expose him without giving him the same liberty. You willed Venom to change into casual clothes, but the black tar-like substance didn't move.

 _ **Don't trust him. Can't trust him.**_

Venom's voice was tense, rightfully so, but you needed them to work with you. " _Pleas_ e." You uttered, and Venom slowly pulled back and morphed into your bar outfit again. Seemed like that was their favorite outfit for you, but you weren't going to address that right now. You looked up at Spiderman and you could see his eyes wide with shock, probably from how quickly you exposed yourself to him. Either that, or the fact you were the pizza delivery person from earlier caught him off guard. You sighed and ran you non-webbed hand through your hair, trying to ignore how fast your heart was beating.

"We need help." You said, looking away slightly embarrassed to ask for it without a disguise or mask to hide behind. Spiderman lowered his arms, not so ready to attack you when you were looking like a civilian. "Again, sorry for beating you up earlier. Venom-" You stopped, feeling like it was weird to speak about them when they were right there. "We weren't having a good morning." You didn't say the full truth. Not yet.

Spiderman eyed you suspiciously for a moment, but you could tell he was already much less on edge than he was moments ago. "What do you need my help for?" Straight to the point again.

 _ **It's no use. He won't listen.**_

"Lee, the last guy to host Venom, is like… _really_ bad." You started casually explaining, hoping that him seeing who you really were would help your case. You weren't the Venom he was used to, you were just… you. "I'm talking 'killed his own best friend' levels of bad. Venom saved my life twice, but thanks to me, Lee nabbed a bit of them and is super dangerous. We need to get it back and... arrest him, I guess." The quick explanation seemed to only confused Spiderman. He stood still, still trying to understand.

"And how 'bad' are you?" He asked, complete with finger quotations in the air. "How dangerous will you be if we make Venom… complete again?" That was a fair question, since you admitted to not trying to seriously hurt him during your fight and totally still won. You felt like this was a trick question, and you had to be careful with what you say. One wrong word might end up with him trying to send you to jail instead of giving you help.

 _ **We shouldn't let him talk to us like this. He is looking down at us.**_

"I'm no threat Mr. Man." You leaned back, and the title seemed to take Spiderman by surprise. "I'm a goddamn receptionist. I don't have military training or a vigilante complex. Venom saved my life, but I just want to do my job." You admitted, and it was mostly true. You loved the idea of eventually playing hero, but it seemed like it was a lot more personal than you thought you were okay with.

"So you having a bad day and picking a fight with me earlier was…?" Spiderman left the question open for you to fill, folding his arms and looking at you questionably. You couldn't help but notice when he leaned his weight on his feet, he kept it off of the leg you grabbed.

 _ **He's more worried about himself. He doesn't care about us.**_

"Like I said during the fight; I was just getting petty revenge for Venom's treatment. You hurt them pretty bad, you know." You pointed out casually, trying not to listen to Venom at the moment and quickly bounce over the subject. Throughout the conversation so far you could feel bubbles of hurt and anger building at the back of your mind, gradually increasing, but it also felt restrained. Venom was trusting you. Spiderman sputtered at your words.

"Hurt it- Excuse me? I hurt _it_ pretty bad?" He spoke like he didn't believe what he was hearing. "You realize what it's done to _me?_ " He brought a hand up to his chest as his eyes narrowed more. Your eyebrows lowered. You didn't like how he called Venom 'it'.

 _ **Hates us. Wants us gone. Sees us as problem.**_

" _They_ tried helping you the best _they_ could. _They_ didn't know better and fell in love with you, and you just ripped _them_ off." You saw Spiderman ready to argue, but you held up your hand. "But we aren't talking about that now. You deserved a quick slap so I gave you one. End of story."

He looked bewildered at your audacity to casually accuse of him, then cut his excuses off. Spiderman stumbled on his words, hands motioning like they were supposed to help express his thoughts. "I- you- what do you- ohhh you don't even know what you are dealing with!" He looked frustrated and grabbed at his mask for a moment, before pointing an accusing finger at you. "I know what it's like wearing that thing. You have no idea what you are getting into."

 _ **Hates us.**_

"Actually, Mr. Man," you could feel your nose crinkle in irritation as you faked the formality again. "I have lovely conversations with Venom, and they already explained pretty much everything to me. Communication is great for relationships, you should try it." The salt in your voice could season a dozen steaks alone. You could feel your own anger building up again, your mothers' complex stepping in at Spiderman once again being terrible to Venom. You could feel the slight startle in the back of your mind, and Venom grew still.

"Oh I'm so sure it told you about its violent history? The murders? The _cannibalism_?" He asked, motioning wide with his arm. The tone in his voice held the 'gotcha!' accusatory feel in it, as if he was outing Venom on a secret that would make you so ready to get rid of it. The thought of Spiderman thinking that exposing Venom's past would help his case made you sick to your stomach.

 _ **Hates us. Hates us.**_

"Yeah, and guess what? They feel bad for that shit now." You had to resist the urge to rip your hand free of the webbing and start beating his ass again. It would be so _easy._ You could just picture stomping over to him and grabbing his thin little throat and forcing him to apologize. "They were with terrible people, naturally they'd do terrible things! They were abused and used by people it trusted, it didn't know better!"

 _ **Now we do.**_

"Not knowing better makes murder okay? Well jeez, I suppose I should inform the police station-" Spiderman pulled out his phone and looked like he was about to dial a number.

"Oh! My bad, I didn't know you were the type of person to believe pit bulls were dogs that needed to be put down since all they know is fighting." You leaned back and turned your head away, as if you were just saying that aloud to yourself. You could see in your peripheral vision Spiderman freeze up and taking a moment to process what you said, waving his hands.

"What? No, I would never say-" He quickly tried to deny, but you cut him off with a violent wave of your hand.

"It's the same fucking idea, asshole." Your voice was loud and sharp, and you could feel your cheeks heating up the longer the argument lasted. "Venom was just a lost alien puppy, trained to fight for love. Then their shitty ass owner beat them and pawned them off to another abusive owner." You gritted your teeth, trying to keep your emotions from spilling over. "You have no fucking right to sit on your high horse when you helped make them this way." Oh, you felt a tear roll down your cheek.

Venom was quiet.

For a moment, Spiderman stood looking at you in shock, what you were saying apparently getting to him finally. He grew tense and raised a hand to speak, but instead just stood there silently for another moment before turning around, pacing. Clearly he had more argument in him, but he could tell you saw yourself in the right. Which you were. Because he was an asshole.

He quickly turned to you like he was finally about to continue his rebuttals, but changed it last second. "You know what, we'll talk about this later." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Where is- what was his name? Lee? Where is he now?" Spiderman asked, reminding you again why you even bothered trying to talk to him in the first place. He stood still and looked over the city, waiting for your response. You noticed he was actually allowing you to be out of his direct vision now.

"Last we saw him, he was with Black Cat in her fancy room." You slumped at the ledge, wiping your cheeks and feeling overheated from the argument, but trying to pull back your anger and get back on subject. The name drew Spiderman's attention. "We can assume he is friends with her, so I don't know how much of a threat she would be if we were to try and get the Venom piece back directly." You admitted. You really didn't have much of a plan at all.

"And when you get the piece back, what are your plans?" Spiderman looked back to you, voice much quieter than it was during the argument. You thought about the question, not exactly sure on the answer yourself.

 _ **We**_ _**don't need it. Just can't let Lee have it.**_

"We don't have any plans either way." You half shrugged, keeping your eyes to the rough gravel on the rooftop. "With or without it, I'm still a receptionist. We just don't want Lee to have it. He's dangerous enough without Venom, but now… well, look at us. We're getting help even though we are basically complete. He isn't someone that should have a weapon, let alone Venom." You admitted.

Spiderman was quiet for a moment. You could practically hear the wheels in his head spinning, determining risks and rewards. Venom started boiling in the back of your mind again, making you feel antsy and needing to get the rejection over with so you could flee before Spiderman tried to turn you in. He stared at the cityscape ahead of his apartment building, thinking, before eventually sighing. "I'll get us some extra help." That genuinely surprised both you and Venom.

 _ **He's lying.**_

"What- really? You'll help us?" You left out the implied 'even if you hate us?' Spiderman's hands flexed into fists and back, apparently just as anxious as you at the moment.

"I'm not doing this for you." The way he said 'you' made it clear he was using it in its singular form. "You said Lee was dangerous, and now he has a weapon. I can't let him hurt people when I can stop it." Huh, the way he said that with the neon lights framing him in the background really made him look like a hero. Maybe that's what everyone saw in Spiderman. The old saying 'you should never meet your heroes' seemed to hold up even at this moment for you though.

"Fine by me. Bring whoever you want, as long as you think they can put up a good fight. Lee is an ex soldier and I got lucky last time. I… Well if I'm being honest, I'm not much of a fighter." You admitted, and Spiderman turned towards you. "Yeah, this morning I smacked you, but that was… instinctive? Felt like schoolyard fight, you know? I'm not exactly experienced with _real_ hand-to-hand combat." You fumbled through your explanation as Spiderman looked down at you. You could only imagine what you looked like to him at the moment. A plain looking receptionist with no fighting experience, with one of his most dangerous enemies sitting just under the surface.

"I got it covered. The less you fight, the more comfortable I'd be anyway." He said. "Give me twelve hours. I'll call when my backup is ready." He crossed his arms and looked down at you, as if trying to make another decision. What else did he have to worry about? Oh, you could think of one thing.

"I don't out people, so don't worry about me knowing your identity. Even when you stab me in the back, your name dies with me." You assured, and he seemed to take notice the use of 'when.'

"That… wasn't what I was going to ask, but thank you. I hope I can trust you when you say that." He sounded honest at least, but there still was doubt in his voice. A silent moment passed, and he still looked like he was on the verge of saying something else but nothing came. It was clear to tell he was conflicted about letting you leave. You could easily figure out why; Venom, one of his most personal enemies, was sitting in front of him with knowledge of his secret identity, already half caught. But far as he knows, _your_ only crime so far has been smacking him and a bit of property damage. Hardly worth starting a fight over.

"Well, if that's all…" You audibly sighed and stood up, Venom coating your hand just slightly to assist you in easily tearing it from the webbing. Spiderman jumped back and readied his arms again, but you pretended to not take notice. "I had a long day and need to hit the hay, but I'll be waiting on that call. I appreciate the help, Mr. Man."

"Please stop calling me that." Spiderman's eyes looked just slightly perturbed, and you couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of satisfaction from it. "And I told you I'm not doing this for you." You turned away from him and stepped up onto the ledge of the building, feeling the nighttime air rush up at you from below. There was a slight clicking sound you heard from behind you, almost masked by the sound of gravel crunching under Spiderman's feet. Turning back to face him you couldn't determine the source of the click, so instead you held your arms up in a shrug, slowly stepping back into the open air.

"Guess you aren't my hero then." You faked a pout and fell backwards off of the building. Warm tendrils coiled across your body within seconds, covering your vision for just a moment before you felt the full body embrace of Venom. You could see Spiderman's head look over the edge of the building just in time for your wrists to whip webbing out, nabbing purchase on another tower, catching you and starting your swinging.

You pulled yourself upright on the web as the sidewalk and civilians wooshed under you just yards away. A bit closer than you would have normally liked, but you knew Venom would never let anything bad happen to you. You could feel Venom's embrace warm slightly around you, confirming your thoughts, and you pulled and launched yourself high into the air.

You felt your heart soar once more at the absolute freedom you felt when the two of you were like this, perfectly combined, perfectly in sync, you nearly forgot why you were even in this part of the city. Your sense of belonging has been hanging with you since your earlier encounter with Spiderman, but it only seemed to swell with how much you lost yourself in traveling with Venom. You didn't even bother to check if the two of you were camouflaged or not, you didn't care either way. Venom would take care of you, from heights, from prying eyes, from Spiderman himself when it came down to it.

 _ **So brave. So clever.**_

Venom's soft voice uttered, and you could feel them wrapping tighter with pride. Their words made you smile and relax within them, flutters in your chest making you feel even lighter as you practically flew through the air. "Why do you say that?" You asked. "I haven't done anything brave yet." You hardly consider asking for help an act of bravery. Instead of answering, Venom just kept quiet and continued bubbling proud feelings in the back of your head.

The two of you turned down countless intersections, and you were getting hopelessly lost in the massive late night grid of New York. You were sure Venom wasn't doing it on purpose, they were likely just finding the most enjoyable route home, but you couldn't help but notice it was much more serpentine than it probably needed to be. Maybe Venom was paranoid that Spiderman would be following? Before you could question your other about the chosen path, your vision focused on a group of shady individuals gathering in an alleyway next to a store and you slowed your swings as you felt your heart start to race with excitement, though you couldn't tell if it was your own.

They had large mostly-empty looking military bags on their backs, wore dark hats, and no easily identifiable pieces of clothing. While that wasn't usually enough to absolutely confirm something was up, the way the four of them clustered and talked, eyeing what looked like a closed jewelry shop- yeah it was obvious. Honestly it surprise you that anyone still thought it was a good idea to try and do petty robberies in the city at this point, with how many heroes you heard were around the state at least. Though these amateurs must have had the right idea, seeing as you were the only super nearby to handle them. You sighed and jumped to the ground far enough away that they wouldn't notice you yet.

Venom, ever aware of your thought process and feeling that you wanted to try and deescalate the situation before it became one, quickly changed into your bar clothes yet again. You hesitated and looked in a dark window to see your reflection, tapping your cheek. "Lets… not look so good. Casual comfort. Maybe a mask?" You asked quietly, and Venom quickly pulled and expanded, becoming baggy sweats with a hoodie, along with a medical mask to cover your mouth and nose. You needed to give an A+ to Venom for their costume work later, but now you needed to deal with baddies.

You started jogging down the sidewalk in their direction, acting like you were on a casual night time jog, if people actually do that in this city. Probably not, but ah well. You made sure your steps were loud as you approached, gradually slowing down at the alleyway entrance the amateurs were in. Stopping at the corner, you started stretching out your legs and looking around casually, and you could see them staring at you. The men (and a woman, now that you were close enough to make out details) seemed to have stopped their conversation, and were patiently waiting for you to continue your jog.

They continued to wait in deathly silence as you performed even more stretches. Ones for arms, then more for legs… by the time you started repeating earlier ones you could easily see the amateurs were growing impatient. Finally after what felt like a solid few minutes of just nonsense stretches, one of the guys ripped his hat down over his face- oh, it was a ski mask- and pulled out a gun towards you.

"Jesus Christ! Get lost, Freak! Can't you see we're busy?!" He yelled, and the others were startled and pulled down their masks quickly as well. You stood straight and held up your hands, but you had no fear in your mind; only amusement.

"You don't gotta do this man. I'm giving you a chance to back out of that decision." You said, and it seemed to catch the four of them off guard. Your voice was steady, and your confidence was boosted to the max. That being said, your heart was pounding with exhilaration. You wanted them to not go down this path, sure, but you also _really_ wanted him to take the shot so you could teach him a lesson. Just the idea of fighting again as Venom made you swallow the excess spit building in your mouth.

"The fuck you talking about? I'm telling _you_ to fuck off!" He adjusted the grip he had on the gun, clearly not expecting you to react like this. When you made no move to run he seemed to get angrier, and the others didn't quite know what to do and looked at each other. Apparently they didn't plan on encountering strange strangers during their robbery. The guy's hands were unsteady for a moment, and he quickly aimed the gun at your feet and fired.

The concrete a few inches away from your shoe took the bullet, making a small crater and sending a scatter of broken concrete bits skittering to the road behind you. You looked down at the bullet hole on the sidewalk and looked back up to the guy, feigning a surprise on your face while still not moving. His eyes were wide with panic as you refused to run away, and you could tell he couldn't take the real shot. He slowly lowered his gun. You were proud of him for being unwilling to take a life, but at the same time you couldn't help your disappointment in not needing to bring out Venom.

"Come on, one fucking creep isn't going to stand between me and lifetime luxury." Another shot went off, and you felt your shoulder shoved backwards at the impact.

The original gun pointer gasped and turned towards the others, and you saw another man holding a gun level to you with angry eyes. The others all started speaking at once, mixture of anger and panic and the order to be quick- before shutting up as you only casually rotated your shoulder and stepped back to how you were. The bullet dropped from your shoulder and clanked onto the ground, and from where it originally hit Venom slowly coursed into their natural form. The dark tendrils pulled out of your clothing and coated you, making you feel the euphoria and strength that Venom made you feel when like this. Your vision blacked out for just a second as Venom's tendrils covered your face, and when you could see again, you could see how horrified the would-be robbers looked up at you and your new height, frozen in fear.

 _ **Lesson time.**_

You raised a monstrous finger and pointed it at the original gun pointer.

"You… may leave." You felt your lips pull back in a toothy smile as the man yelled and stumbled back, quickly scrambling further down the alleyway and running off. The others quickly turned to run as well, but you weren't about to let _all_ of them leave. You made a fist and threw a blob of Venom at the one that actually shot you and it splattered onto his back, sending him crashing to the ground. Two of the others screamed and stopped running to look back to him, but were hesitant to try and help with you slowly walking up to him.

The blob of Venom had stuck around the man's rib cage and arms, leaving his legs free to kick and struggle on the ground. After getting his bearings he managed to bring himself to his knees, but before he could stand you placed your foot to his back and slammed him back down into the concrete. He grunted, the air being forced out of his lungs at your weight. You heard a small crack followed by a yell come from him, and you quickly lessened how heavily you held him down. Shit. You hoped that crack wasn't anything important. You had to remind yourself you didn't want to kill him. Punish, yes, but not kill.

Multiple gunshots rang out beside you to your irritation, and you could see the woman robber stepping up and unloading her gun at you, but the bullets were simply spat out by Venom a second later. You felt your anger build at how dumb she was being. She couldn't have just run away and let this guy take his proper punishment? Your hand reached out to her, a web snagging the front of her jacket, and you yanked it hard. She didn't have time to brace for the pull and was sent flying at you, and your hand closed around her throat. Her eyes widened as you lifted her up and she dropped the gun to wrap her hands around your monstrous arm.

"Lady, you were free to go. Why the _fuck_ did you think it was a good idea to shoot us?" You asked, irritated and annoyed at the lack of self-preservation she seemed to have. She gasped out and struggled under your hand, eyes darting to the man you had pinned under your foot. "For real? You risk yourself for this ass? You need better choice in partners." You muttered, resisting the sudden urge to _squeeze_. The woman's struggling efforts lessened as she closed her eyes, and you noticed her lips growing pale.

Memories of your first night with Venom flashed in your mind, of the pale face of the shooter, the blank stare- you immediately dropped the woman. No. Not dealing with that again. Not tonight. She collapsed to the ground and grabbed at her throat, gasping out for air. You blinked and shook your head, leaving the haze of the euphoria, wondering what the hell you were doing. You… You needed sleep, you finally determined, and got off of the man completely. He groaned and took a breath of air with a wince of pain, and you realized that it was probably a rib that cracked earlier. Trying not to think of what you almost did, you grabbed both him and the woman by the shoulders and threw them at the alleyway wall, flicking out your wrist and webbing them to it. Both of them were dazed and hurt, but they weren't struggling against the webbing at least. You looked down both ways of the alleyway, seeing no one else around. At least the others were smart enough to keep running.

Venom provided your cell phone at a thought, and you quickly called up the police. They spoke quickly asked what you were calling for, and you barely registered the question as you continued to stare at the robbers. The phone operator asked again, and you stammered at realizing they were waiting for you to respond. "Uh- ah- yes hi, I'm here." Venom pulled from your mouth as you spoke, making sure you sounded normal for the police. "I saw some people that looked like robbers down the street a bit, and I think- ah… Spiderman was fighting them? It was dark and I didn't want to get closer." You were lucky lying came like second nature to you. You couldn't focus on anything other than the robbers faces as they twisted in discomfort under their masks. The operator quickly asked for more details, so you told them the store they were close to and the street you were on in a rush. Your head felt too cloudy to listen to anything else they were saying so you hung up, hoping it was enough information but you couldn't stand to speak any longer. Your chest felt too cold, your throat was too tight, and you felt sick standing there staring at the webbed up robbers.

Without thinking you turned and leaped into the air, wrists quickly sending webs to other buildings and you let the air rush past you. The gentle swaying motion helped ease the sick feeling, but it was still there, hanging over you, and you felt like you were on the verge of collapsing despite how assuredly your webs found their mark as you swung through the streets. Venom tightened around you, making more aware of yourself more than the overwhelming _everything else_.

 _ **Did right thing. Stopped bad people.**_

You wanted to believe Venom, you thought you believed that yourself, but why did you feel so wrong? You prevented a robbery. You gave two people to the cops. By all means you should be feeling proud of yourself for helping the city, but instead you felt sick and cold and wrong and all sorts of lost-

 _ **Was so smart under pressure. Did so good.**_

Venom continued the praise, making your negative thoughts stumble and scatter momentarily. You noticed that the path you were taking was much more direct, your webs only making you turn corners when it seemed necessary. You felt thankful, wanting to collapse in bed as soon as physically possible and to let whatever was going on in your brain run its course. You tried ignoring the nagging thought wondering why Venom didn't take a direct path right away, and you quieted the thoughts telling you how it wasn't your excitement you felt when you first saw the baddies. Everything was fine now. You just wanted your bed. You just needed to sleep and stop thinking so much.

You blinked, and suddenly you were climbing in your apartment window. The whole half the city you must have traveled completely missing from your memory, and you felt a slight surge of panic at that. Venom quickly shed themself and turned into your other comfortable pajamas as you looked down at yourself, but you then felt warm pressures against the back of your neck and the base of your head, halting your panic. Dark tendrils danced in the edges of your vision as they coiled along your jaw and gently pressed.

 _ **Relax.**_

Confusion was your first response, not understanding what Venom was trying to do, but the tendrils moved slowly, and you felt all of your tension nearly completely vanish in an instant. You shuttered and leaned against your counter as Venom appeared to massage along your neck, seeming to know all of the exact location of all of your pressure points. It was strange getting massaged by… well, something not human, but you couldn't bring yourself to care about the strangeness of all of the extra contact. It felt _amazing,_ and it helped lifted the last of the bad sick feeling that was coiled in your stomach. Instead you felt that calming warmth in your chest once more, and found yourself leaning into Venom's embrace behind you- despite knowing there wasn't anyone actually back there.

All too soon the mini massage ended, waking you up enough for the confusion to come back. You looked around behind you as if to speak with Venom face-to-face before remembering yourself. "What… What was all of that?" You asked, now consciously aware that the sick feeling was gone- and the fact you were feeling it earlier. You couldn't exactly identify it, but something about the… sick feeling, felt familiar. Familiar in the very bad sense.

 _ **Answer later. Water now.**_

You found yourself trying to figure what question to ask as you felt like you were on autopilot, turning towards your fridge. You made it as far as grabbing your water pitcher before stopping, blinking and taking stock of yourself. "Venom." Your voice had a hint of warning. You didn't know what they were doing, but you felt your gut twist when you realized they were influencing your actions while you were _outside_ the full suit.

 _ **Drink. Please.**_

You hesitated, but the 'please' got to you. Grabbing the pitcher and a glass, you quickly poured yourself half a cup and downed it in one go, just trying to please Venom so they would talk. At least that was the plan, but then you became aware of how good the water felt when you drank it. Damn, okay, so you really were thirsty. You poured yourself some more and drank it slower, but you also leaned on the counter and waited expectantly.

 _ **Feeling better?**_

Venom didn't need to ask, you knew that much. They were aware of everything you were thinking, why would feelings be any different? "Yeah." You admitted despite your thoughts. Maybe Venom just wanted to talk. If that was the case… You appreciated it. "Yeah, I feel better. More like… well, before. What was that? Why did I feel so sick right then?" You asked, sipping on more water.

 _ **Being hero is hard. Does not come naturally to you.**_

To _you_. Your mind echoed what Venom said, and you knew Venom's words held more weight than they usually suggested. That sent a chill down your spine and made you pause. You held the glass to your lips a moment before lowering it. "What?" Sure, you weren't the most heroic person around… but you weren't bad. You would never be a villain-

 _ **No. Not villain. Not hero either. Just civilian.**_

You tried focusing on what Venom was saying, and how… how much _worse_ that sounded. You weren't good, or bad, or anyone special. Just a civilian. Someone in the background. A nobody that wouldn't be missed if a wall fell on them and no one was there to notice.

 _ **Hey.**_

You looked down at your hands, watching the water in the glass shake ever so slightly. As much as you hated what Venom said, they were right. You were born a nobody and raised to exist without drawing attention. Your one and only job at work is to make sure everyone else can do their function without expressly making yourself known. You work behind the scenes to the point that no one realizes you exist. Hell, look at you. Apparently the act of making a difference made you sick to your stomach it was so against your nature. How could you ever-

 _ **Enough of that.**_

Before your mind could send you spiraling down any further, Venom's darkness pressed over your mouth like a hand keeping you from speaking. It somehow helped shut up your thoughts and brought you back to your present, holding you still for a few seconds. You became aware at how hard your heart was beating, how shaky your breath was though your nose. The sleeve of your pajama top darkened and coiled down your arm, and a chocolate kiss was gently placed in the palm of your hand. The mass over your mouth disappeared.

 _ **Eat.**_

The command was gentle, more of an urging than an order, so you brought the kiss in front of you and started fumbling with the wrapping. Despite knowing that it probably was important if Venom was telling you to eat chocolate, you still needed to get the wrapper off whole. You carefully struggled with the kiss until you found two corners of the foil to finally pull at. When the kiss was finally freed you popped the piece of chocolate into your mouth and crushed it with your tongue. You let the chocolate melt in your mouth, the sticky sweetness coating your tongue before you swallowed, and you… actually felt a bit better.

 _ **One more.**_

You looked at your palm and noticed another kiss sitting in its grasp, so you repeated the process. The second kiss was faster to free and bite into, and your chest gave flutters of satisfaction with it. You never had this reaction to chocolate before, sure it's sweet and tastes good, but you haven't _loved_ it like this since you were a child. You had a feeling it had something to do with that Phen… Phonetian… The long P-word chemical that Venom told you about.

 _ **Phenethylamine**_.

Yeah that.

You stood and looked down at the two squares of foil, silently staring at them for a moment before using the side of your hand to flatten the wrinkles out of one of them. It was hard to keep your thoughts quiet. You kept mentally jumping back to your conversation with Spiderman, and you almost dreaded the phone call for tomorrow. Sure, it meant that you would have help to get back that Venom piece, but it also meant that you would need to be working with Spiderman. That thought almost soured your mouth despite the lingering sweetness in it. You also wondered at who he was planning on bringing. Someone good at fighting, like your suggestion probably, which meant that it would be even harder for you to escape if- _when_ he turned against you.

 _ **Rest now, worry later.**_

"I guess we'll burn that bridge when we get to it." You muttered lamely, but ultimately agreeing with Venom. You were tired as hell, both physically and emotionally, and you felt like you needed the sleep. Placing your glass in the sink to deal with tomorrow, you quickly did your nightly routine and made your way to your bed. You crawled between the soft sheets and quickly sank to the comfortable coziness your bed provided, pulling the blankets up to your cheeks.

Your mind was still just a bit too active to let sleep take you away just yet, but you were patient. Thoughts came and went, and eventually your perfectly comfortable position in bed wasn't as comfortable as you thought it was, and you tossed and turned to find that sweet spot once more. Your thoughts still didn't shut up though, and your position was even less comfortable than the last one. You turned again and hugged a pillow, feeling a bit or irritation. Comeon, sleep! Oh god, now you were aware of how hard it was to sleep, and that always made it so much worse.

"Vennnnom." You muttered into the pillow.

 _ **Yes?**_

"Can you do that… massage thing again? Just for a while?" You asked, looking up at nothing as if talking to someone in the general direction. You could feel warmth immediately seep up against your neck and along the back of your head, gently pressing against you and immediately releasing tension.

 _ **Of course. Sleep well.**_

Your last waking thought was the slight concern of having sugar right before bed, and hoping that it wouldn't give you nightmares.

.

You walked alone in the abandoned streets of someplace that wasn't quite New York, and not quite your old home town. It looked like a hodgepodge of the two, frankensteined together at random places on the roads and half way through entire buildings. Small houses somehow mashed into massive business towers, reminding you of when when you were a child you would pound non-fitting puzzle pieces together and end up with a distorted picture in the end.

The echoes of your footsteps bounced back to you before your actual steps, but you were too preoccupied looking around for anyone. The fog was growing thicker, and you couldn't stop the dread of being lost here much longer. You called out, asking if anyone was around, but you couldn't hear your voice, only the echo. Turning quickly and running down the patchwork roads, you looked more desperately. You felt yourself yelp, stopping all of a sudden when your hair was yanked back.

"Why are you in such a rush?" Echos became before your mother's voice, and you turned to see her looking down at you. Very down, you notice, as it seemed to be she was a good few feet taller than you. She tilted her head, and you had a sick feeling in the back of your mouth as she spoke again. She wasn't your mom. Her wrinkles along her eyes didn't look right, and her lips were just a bit too red. "Come on inside. We've been waiting for you." She motioned to a doorway next to the two of you, and her grip in your hair tightened.

Your feet stumbled forward into the room, and you could see dozens of people in celebration surrounding you. They had faces, but when you tried focusing on anyone, nothing stood out. Soon as you looked away from them, you forgot what they looked like. Every couple steps you took one of them laughed and reached down, giving you a shake on your shoulder and congratulating you. You didn't know why. You didn't want to know. You wanted to leave.

The grip on your hair directed you to the center of the room before finally releasing. A glass was shoved into your small hands, and you stared at the black sludge churning in it. You looked up to see everyone standing in a circle around you, your mother smiling and saying words that were muffled as if it was being heard through a wall. The air was suddenly harder to breathe, and you could feel your lungs drowning in the lack of oxygen.

" _Venom…_ " Your voice was quiet and sluggish, struggling to complete the simple word.

Your mother continued her muffled speech, holding up her own glass of the black fluid. Echoes of the other's cheers called out as they brought their own glasses up, and one by one they downed the glass. The scene played in halftime, and you could hear the heartbeat in your ears contest the slow music playing in the background.

"... _please…_ " The syllable dragged on for an eternity as you stared in horror at the people around you.

One of the guests dropped his empty glass, hands ever so slowly reaching for his throat as he seemed to choke on the fluid. Another guest fell to her knees, coughing desperately on the ground. The rest of them started falling and choking, all grabbing at their throats and collapsing in succession. The room spun around you as you watched your mother's mouth split wide with a smile with too many teeth, before she collapsed onto the ground as well.

"... _Help_." You uttered, the glass in your hand slipping out of your grip and shattering onto the ground. Immediately a pulse shockwaved through the room, black wheat bursting out of the ground around you and coating everything you could see. All of the bodies and furniture were overtaken, the floors and walls burst into dust, and the air became breathable again. You looked up, seeing the dust has littered the darkened sky into a colorful nebula with countless stars above you.

All at once the nightmarish party room of strangers has become a serene, blackened wheat field, with the most beautiful sky hanging overhead.

You breathed deeply, listening to the calming sound of the wheat brushing against itself in the wind around you, and felt a rush of warm nighttime air brush past you. The distant atmospheric sounds of the city could be heard from where you were, but there was nothing but flat openness around you, and the beautiful sky above. The longer you looked at the sky, the more colors you could see. Staring at the colors and the lights made the nightmare fade quietly, and you carefully sat onto the soft ground. The wheat towered over you but didn't completely block your view of the stars, so you laid back and watched the gently swaying black blades surrounded you, framing the beautiful night sky.

You let yourself get lost in the stars.


	7. Pâro

A violent crack outside of your window wakes you up with a start.

You sat up and reached for your bat instinctively, hand just grabbing it when you woke up enough to register the sound of rain hitting your window. It was almost completely dark around you, only for a flicker of brilliant white to come from outside and illuminate everything in your room for a second. Another violent crack and rumble gradually rolling through the cityscape, and you finally put two and two together in your half-asleep mind. It's been a while since you've seen weather other than bright or muggy days in New York, you almost forgot that it could even storm here. You felt your pajamas coil around you in a comforting manner, and the tension in your shoulders loosened.

 ** _Just weather._**

Venom offered quietly, and you felt your racing heart slow at their voice. "Yeah. Hell of a storm though." You let go of the wooden bat and brought your hands to your face, rubbing the sleep from your eyes. Throwing your legs over the edge of the bed and letting out a powerful yawn, you slowly properly woke up. "Anything new with you?" You smacked your lips together and stood, walking to the kitchen for a drink. Another lightning strike lit up your room, the thunder sounding just a few seconds after. Must have been close.

 ** _Not at the moment._**

"Mhm." You passed your microwave and noticed the electronic clock flashing a little after four. "Huh, shit. Rather early to be waking up." Rubbing your eyes again, you regretted not just staying in bed. You needed to be well rested to deal with Spiderman tomorrow- well, today- and you weren't sure if the storm was going to let you sleep. Rain was soothing, sure, but loud cracks of sound always made you flinch. One of your old friends said that was a trait of a guilty conscious, which to that you called bull, since you knew plenty of pieces of shit that never reacted to someone dropping a book too loud like you did.

 ** _Perhaps they didn't hold guilt._**

That was a fair point. You shrugged, quickly pouring yourself some water and downing it. If you were going to sleep with this weather, you needed to distance yourself from the sounds. Tv was the safest option, but you knew nothing good would be playing at this hour. Probably just old movies if you were lucky. While that wouldn't affect you any, you didn't want to leave Venom watching something… potentially like The Fly. You were pretty sure Venom didn't sleep, and that had to be incredibly boring for them. "Oh." You glanced towards your tv, getting an idea. "Venom, have you played video games before?"

 ** _Watched others play._**

"Then you are in for a treat." You grabbed a pillow from your bed and threw it onto the couch before going to your game console. "Let's see… Something easy to get you started, something with a good soundtrack so I can sleep… ah! Here." You grabbed the game with a creature that had a very long red scarf standing in a desert on the cover. "There is no real loss of progress in this game, so you won't have to worry about doing something wrong." You could feel Venom's curiosity building as you put the disk in and sat on the couch. The game quickly loaded and you held the controller out in your hands, clear for Venom to see.

"To give you a quick tutorial, move this to move in game-" You pushed the joystick around and made the little creature run in circles. "-then press this to jump, and this… to sing? You'll figure it out." You held up the controller. Slowly Venom's tendrils reached out from behind you, carefully grabbing ahold of the cheap plastic like it was made of glass. The tendrils coiled messily over the controller, giving experimental presses and successfully moving the character around.

 ** _What is the objective?_**

Venom asked, jumping and running through the sand aimlessly. You shrugged and laid down on the couch, getting comfortable with your pillow. "Just enjoy the journey." Venom made their confusion clear to you by making the robed creature run in circles, and you laughed a little. Eventually they started wandering and sliding down the sand dunes, letting the beautiful atmospheric music fill the room and make the storm happening outside not quite as noticeable. You smiled, and drifted back to sleep.

.

Your dreams were filled with strands of red webbing tangling through your hair and leading you through an oversized forest, leaving you very confused at where this was coming from. When you woke up however, you realized the cause for the dream. At some point Venom must have finished the game you had set up, and somehow figured out how to start another one. They currently were playing as another red creature, except this time it was a little man made of red yarn.

"Having fun?" You asked, sitting up and rubbing your eyes again as you felt a stretch travel through your legs. Light was filtering through your apartment from outside, but you could still hear the light tapping of rain continuing from the other side of your window. Seemed like the bulk of the storm had passed, at least. Bubbles of happiness filled the back of your head, making you smile as you stretched.

 ** _Like these games._**

"Glad to hear. I bought that game and never really got around to playing it, so I'm glad someone gets to enjoy it." You stood and watched a moment, impressed that Venom seemed to have learned how to solve complex problems in video games so quickly. They took a few leaps and tried to grab a ledge, gradually making a trampoline for the yarn man to jump from ledge to ledge. You hummed, happy that they were enjoying the solution, and got up to get yourself breakfast.

The pajamas you were wearing shrunk as you felt a slight pulling come from behind you, and when you turned around you could see Venom still sitting on the couch. The inky blackness gathered and built itself up, looking vaguely humanoid all on its own. It was uncanny to see Venom take shape without being worn, looking like an empty suit somehow sitting and defying gravity. The milky white eyes formed at the "head" and you watched as they shifted and focused on the tv screen as their tendrils, now looking more hand like, intently tapped and controlled the remote.

"Ven… Venom?" You asked, confused as you looked down to see yourself now nearly nude- only a few strands of Venom still connected the two of you, despite the couple feet of distance. Venom didn't seem to take notice in your questioning, contently pressing buttons and trying to solve the puzzle.

Venom wasn't as dependent on you as it would seem. You could tell that they surely were lacking without a host, but they looked like they could almost be their own being right now. That left you with mixed feelings, but you backed out of those thoughts before you could identify them. If Venom wanted to play a little longer, then fine, you were just going to get some breakfast. No sense if making yourself feel bad for not being as needed as you thought.

You took a step further away, feeling the tendrils that were connecting the two of you tighten and snap, and the world violently shifted to its side. Gasping for air, you barely managed to put your hands down to soften your landing as you fell to the floor that was currently acting like a wall, and you felt yourself break into a cold sweat as the room gently spun around. Your lungs expanded, the action feeling almost alien in your own chest, and your vision was just out of focus enough to not help your dizziness.

Looking around wildly trying to figure out what was going on, you saw the dark mass of Venom look at you, drop the controller, and surge towards you. Like a tidal wave, they crashed and surrounded you, pulling themselves tight to your skin. Instantly dousing your feverish skin and the room flopped back to its proper position, leaving you laying on the ground only confused- not so much dazed anymore.

 ** _Sorry. We are Sorry. Forgot ourselves. We are here._**

"Wh… What. Was. That." You sat up and brought a hand to your head. You could feel Venom's tendrils reach up and stroke through your hair, gently giving you more comforting contact than you thought you needed. There was a pit in your stomach building at your thoughts that were already trying to figure what just happened out, but you really hoped they were wrong.

 ** _Wasn't expecting to lose us. That's all. We are fine._**

Before you could open your mouth to ask for more of a clarification, you felt a pressure in your hand. Looking down, you could see chocolate kiss sitting in your palm. Already knowing that meant Venom wanted you to eat one, you quickly unwrapped it and threw it in your mouth. As you flattened the foil and allowed the chocolate to melt on your tongue, you could feel relief slowly shift through your brain. Thanks to Venom's caressing and the bit of chocolate, you quickly felt back to normal. Other than the lingering confusion, of course.

Venom stayed quiet though, and you weren't sure if you wanted to ask if you were… well, the dependent one in this relationship. You had presumed the Alien was the one that would need a host, not the other way around.

 ** _Everything is okay now. Won't happen again. Please, eat._**

Feeling less sure of yourself, you chose to try and ignore what just happened. Venom was right, you needed to just eat something. You could ask what exactly happened later with a full stomach.

You opened your fridge to see that it was mostly barren, but luckily it looked like you had enough milk to last breakfast. You pulled it out, quietly considering options. "We should go get groceries before Parker calls. We probably won't feel like shopping after dealing with him. Or Lee." You added on, mind still lingering on-

Right, you were pretending that nothing happened, you reminded yourself and served yourself a bowl of cereal.

.

"Ugh, how can people just afford this shit?" You looked down at the overpriced frozen meat in your hands and glared at the price tag. Sighing at the futility of glaring at something that isn't alive, you put it down and continued looking around the grocery store for something a little more in your budget. You could feel Venom gently urging you towards the steaks, but they were much too expensive here. Maybe you could find someplace cheaper further into town…

"Did your previous hosts keep you well fed? The way you act around food, I would assume you were starved." You asked, reaching for a tub of frozen chicken gizzards. They were cheap, and you were sure you would be able to look up your mom's old recipe to make them tasty enough for Venom.

 ** _Mostly relied on…_** **other** **_food sources._**

" _Other_ sources?"

As if you said the magic words you were instantly thrown back into memories, though these ones seemed slightly different than the others. Everything seemed so much smaller than you, and washed out- but not so much in the sense that it was being forgotten. You were just the most important thing around. And not to mention the overwhelming stink of… Testosterone?

Webbing around was familiar enough, fighting thugs was the same- but then instead of simply webbing the bad guys to be found by cops later, you found yourself biting off limbs as punishment- and for pleasure. They tasted absolutely bland, completely unsatisfactory in the flavor department, but doing it for the sake of doing it was what made it worth it.

The memories vanished as you brought a hand to your mouth, feeling your eyes widen.

 ** _Other sources._**

"That is… revolting. Someone actually went out of their way to eat limbs just because they could?" You asked, having a hard time keeping your voice low. It was early enough in the morning that there weren't too many people around in this part of the shop at least.

 ** _We also ate squirrels-_**

"Stop. I just realized I really don't want to know." You held up a hand, instantly regretting asking. "We'll keep well fed using _traditional_ methods, alright? No brains, no limbs, and no squirrels. Just… Empty wallets." You muttered the last bit as you grabbed more of the gizzards and stuffed them into your basket.

And with that, your grocery list was complete. You made your way quickly to a self checkout and properly rung yourself up, heart sinking every time the number jumped higher than you expected. With the last item scanned, you found it hard to pull your eyes from the final cost. "I can't believe we didn't remember to loot those guys last night." You muttered, regretfully grabbing your credit card from your wallet and sticking it into the machine.

This one trip was a much bigger dent to your wallet than usual, and you couldn't help but to blame the bags of chocolate Venom were having you buy. Well, in reality they insisted on just taking it- but you weren't going to become a thief just because your living situation has become just slightly more demanding. Even if it would be insanely easy to just have Venom absorb it when no one was looking…

You sighed with relief as the machine beeped up at you, and you saw your card was approved. You took your card back and gathered the bags, ready to get home and relax a bit before Parker called.

Unfortunately that didn't seem like it was going to happen. The two of you were just leaving the grocery store when you felt the phone in your pocket go off, and you struggled a moment to move all the bags to one hand so you could answer it. "Yessss?" You dragged out the word as you brought the phone to your ear, and you thought you heard a sigh come from the other side.

"Central park, north-west corner. Forty minutes." Parker's voice said, though it was slightly muffled with other morning-rush sounds coming from his end. Sounded busy, though you knew it wasn't the cause for him being so short with his words.

"We're sorry, who is this?" You asked with a smile, adjusting the bags in your hand so you could start walking and get out of other people's ways. Edging on Spiderman when you were asking for help was probably not the smartest thing, but hearing the agitated breath through the speaker was absolutely satisfying for both you and Venom.

"It's Peter."

"Oh hey Peter. Good morning, nice to talk to you." You acted like you were starting the conversation properly, as if you were offended he didn't give a proper greeting before snapping out orders. You dropped it quickly enough though, trying not to let him sour your mood too much. "No problem. We'll be there soon." Beeping on your phone let you know he dropped the call. Part of you wondered if he was this short with everyone, but you highly doubted it.

You took your time walking home with your groceries, knowing that Central Park wasn't actually that far now that you could just web yourself over there. A few minutes, tops. Thank goodness you actually knew what direction it was in, there was actually some relief at the fact that Parker didn't say some streets and expect you to know where the hell he was.

There were no incidents on the way home, and you made it into your apartment with plenty of time to spare. You carefully sorted through all of the food you bought, and for the first time in a while you fridge looked properly stocked. You hoped it would last, but honestly who knows how much you would eat now if you were to let loose. Not that you ever really felt hungry now though. You were more eating out of habit or because Venom brought attention to needing food than anything else.

It wasn't quite lunchtime yet, so you grabbed a large chocolate bar for a quick sweet snack. You could feel the excitement building at the base of your skull as you brought it to your lips and your vision suddenly flashed black, and your sharp teeth chomped into the chocolate. Your long tongue lazily coiled around the bar, wrapping and all, and pulled the rest into your mouth to be happily chewed. Despite your fingers only coming in contact with the wrapper, you licked your claws to make sure you didn't leave any chocolate behind.

You snapped back to attention, aware of the fact Venom was coating you now. A giggle escaped your lips and you turned to face your reflection in the turned off tv. "A bit enthusiastic, are we?" Venom's corner of your brain filled with embarrassment, and you laughed. "It's fine, we should go meet up with Parker now anyway. Gonna need that mood boost." You brought up your arms and stretched your neck and shoulders while heading to the window, time to do your usual exit of your apartment. Already far too comfortable with how high your jumps sent you with no fear of falling, you leapt off of the sill and enjoyed webbing your way through the buildings in the rain.

While you were swinging, you noticed you were taking the same roads that you first kicked Spiderman in the face on. Ah, good times. You glanced down to the rooftop garden that took the blunt of that fight, only to notice a familiar face standing in the middle of the muddy mess. "Oh shit." You muttered under your breath, slowing your swing. "It's the flower chick."

 ** _Camellia._**

Apparently Venom had a better memory for names than you did. Camellia stood under a transparent umbrella looking defeated as she took in all of the damage, and you felt your stomach drop at realizing you were the one that did that to her.

"Shit. I need to do something." You ground your teeth and let go of your webbing. You landed on the pathway of the roof heavily, dropping your camouflage as Camellia turned to see what made the sound. Before you could even bring your hands up to start talking, she was already screaming and running for the stairwell- nearly ripping the door off of its hinges in the process. Her umbrella lay abandoned on the patio.

Damn. You know you should feel bad for not being able to explain yourself, but how quickly she ran away was actually impressive. She has good instincts and probably would survive a horror film. No sense in scaring her more though, it'd be best if you just did your piece to fix the place and leave it at that. You shook your head and glanced about, trying to find the biggest damages to try and quickly fix. Parker was probably already at the park, but he can stand to wait some more.

The biggest thing you noticed other than the huge amount of mud scattered about was the table that was still sticking out of the next building, so you leapt to it and ripped it out, seeing that the once round metal table was a bit crumpled now. Trying to keep your guilt under check, you jumped back to the patio and carefully sat it down. The legs didn't quite match up, leaving the table at quite a tilt. That was frustrating. You pulled at opposite ends of the table, trying to smooth it out a bit, but it appeared that wrecking things was a whole lot easier than fixing them.

After a couple minutes of struggling, you did manage to make it able to sit mostly flat, so that was good enough. Looking around to assess the rest of the damage, it seemed like it was mostly all the dirt and crushed flowerbeds left. Some bricks that lined the edges of the beds were scattered as well, but those was easy enough to put back into place. If it was dryer out you would have tried to sweep up the dirt for her, but there wasn't a chance for you to fix that when it was raining. Maybe you could stop by later and finish the job.

Deciding to leave a note for Camellia, if she ever came back up here, you grabbed a spare brick from the corner of the patio and carefully scratched into it. "We're Sorry" complete with a sad face. Seeing that it was the best you could offer, you left the brick on the slightly-less-wrecked-but-still-not-in-good-shape table so it would easily be seen. And with that, you jumped away.

You swung around the edges of the park using signs to guide you to the west, and eventually you found yourself carefully looking around for either Spiderman or Parker. You couldn't see either of them anywhere, so you dropped down and ducked behind a bus stop to change into civvies. Venom quickly turned into a black hoodie and sweatpants, just enough to protect you from the light rain and keep attention off of you. You walked around a bit more, slowly getting the feeling that this was a mistake.

"Maybe he's the one running late." You theorized, looking around and still seeing no sight of him. You would have been more worried that it was a trap if it wasn't so public. No way he would try anything with this many people around. So you were left with the conclusion he was just bad at keeping up with his dates. You weren't about to stand around like an idiot waiting on a no-show in the rain, so you found a coffee shop at the corner and ordered some raspberry tea to enjoy. Most of the other customers were keeping inside, but there was a table with an umbrella just outside that you decided to take, keeping your eyes casually looking around for the hero.

Your drink was half gone when a rolled up newspaper smacked down on your table next to your arm, startling you and nearly making you drop the rest your cup. You turned and readied a fist, only to see Spiderman's mask face to face with you. The whites of his eyes were narrowed, and you had the feeling he wasn't happy with you. Big shocker there, but you wondered what he was upset about now specifically.

"No vigilante complex, was it?" He asked, tilting his head slightly before taking a step back, letting go of the newspaper on the table. Spiderman walked around the table to sit on the other end, and the sight of Spiderman sitting at a coffee place so openly had you smiling, but the smile dropped when you looked down at the newspaper. Big bold lettering was announcing the return of Venom, complete with a sketch of a dark and toothy Venom on the front page. Just under the sketch was an image of the robbers webbed to the wall from last night. Wow, the press moved quickly.

"Huh… Would you look at that." You opened the newspaper to see the full article casually. "Newspapers still exist. I thought everything would be electronic-"

"Two broken ribs and a fractured larynx." He interrupted you, and you looked up from the paper to meet his narrowed eyes. "Those could have been dangerous if the police didn't get there so quickly. It's strange that they thought Spiderman was responsible, don't you think?" He asked, resting his elbows on the table and bringing his hands together.

"Yeah. Just the darndest thing." You put the paper down and took a sip from your tea. Your response made his eyes narrow a tiny bit more and the air between the two of you was tense. You decided to try and break it before it built too much, so you waved a hand in the air and leaned back into the chair. "What was I supposed to do? Just let them rob the place? That's messed up even for you, Mr. Man." The name irritated him yet again.

"Don't-" He sighed and leaned forward. "You could have just called me. You have my number, and it was within minutes of my apartment-"

"Oh what, every time we see a petty crime we're supposed to just hop onto your hotline? We have the power to help stop these kind of people, and you are asking for us not to. That's mighty hypocritical of you." You feigned disappointment and crossed your arms. Something you said made Spiderman stiffen in his seat. "It's not like we searched them out, they were just there at the same time we were, so we took matters into our own hands."

"You don't get to decide whose lives are in your hands." He kept his volume controlled, despite how tense you could see his shoulders grow.

"No, _we_ don't. _They_ do. The second they shot us was the second we decided to turn them in. Ask the ones that we let run away. One of them threatened us and was ready to shoot, but he didn't, so we let him go. The two that we stuck were the ones that actually shot us." You explained, but you could tell Spiderman wasn't completely interested in your reasoning.

He exhaled, obviously having a hard time arguing with you. He lowered his voice. "Listen, I know you think you are helping, but that _thing_ you have is _using_ you." Your jaw tightened, as well as your grip on the cup of tea. "It feels good, and powerful, doesn't it? It comes with a cost. One night you'll wake up and realize it has been taking your body on joy rides around town without you knowing."

Why was it whenever he spoke you wanted to punch him in the face?

 ** _Please do not. Too much attention._**

You carefully set down your cup as to not crush it, and slowly glared at him. " _They_ wouldn't do that to me. We trust each other. If Venom wants something, they know all they have to do is ask. Like right now, for example." You casually added some more salt into your voice. "I really want to punch you in the face again because you are _seriously_ fuckin' rude, Mr. Man, but Venom is asking me not to. So here we are." You crossed your arms again, and what you said seemed to surprise Spiderman.

"Wait, _you_ want to punch me in the face and _it_ doesn't?" He clarified, and you ground your teeth at him calling Venom "it" again. The reaction was noticed and he brought a hand up. "Okay, okay. Fine. I thought about it a lot last night, and if I'm being honest, you _do_ seem like the least dangerous Venom host yet. I'm willing to give you a chance-"

"How _generous_ of you."

"-If! If you don't ditch my tracker this time." He held up a small metal spider between two of his fingers, drawing your attention. You raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What?" You asked, confusion overriding the last of your anger. You didn't recall him giving you a tracker before, but he acted like you got rid of one already.

 ** _We dropped it next to the robbers last night._**

Oh, Venom had your back, that's why. Now that you thought back to last night on the roof, you realized that the tracker must have been what the clicking was that you couldn't identify.

"Just for now, at least. You have to understand when it comes to Venom, we tend to have trust issues. Keep this on you, _actually_ on you at all times, and maybe I'll grow some faith in the two of you." Spiderman answered, seeming to think your questioning was at his rather large demand.

"This little guy have a mic on it? Camera?" You asked, swiping the small metal spider from him and looking at it closely. You could just make out tiny mechanics on the legs that suggested it could actually move. "I want to make sure we're not giving you a personal peep show every night, you know." You looked back at him, and you could see him straighten in his seat at your implication.

"No- uh, just tracker." His voice nearly cracked, and you half wished he wasn't wearing the mask to see how embarrassed he would be at your question. Finding new ways to get under his skin was your new personal goal, it would seem.

You looked at it a bit longer, considering your options, before stuffing it into your pocket. "Fine. Anything to make Mr. Man more comfortable with us existing." You shrugged sarcastically and picked up your tea, quickly downing the rest of it.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" His voice lowered in irritation again, and you took pride it the reaction.

"Cause you're the Man, Spiderman. Would you rather we call you by your name?" You asked, feigning confusion. His eyes widened slightly but you held up your hand before he could think you were serious about the threat. "Consider it my condition. You have trust issues with aliens, and I have respect issues to abusive exes. Simple as that."

You could see Spiderman's mouth open under the mask, but he stopped short of what he was going to say and sighed. "Whatever. You are done with that, right?" He pointed towards your cup, and you nodded. "Then let's get moving. My backup should be where I told him to be by now." He stood, and you followed suit. He started walking past you to get to the exit of the gated off area but instead placed a hand on your shoulder and lowered his voice nearly to a whisper.

"One last thing." Spiderman started, and you glanced down at his hand. He didn't move it so you looked back up into the eyes of his mask. You hummed in questioning, urging him to continue. "How many have you killed?" That question genuinely shocked you.

"Wh- Killed? I haven't-"

 ** _One._**

Venom's thought startled you out of your words, and you realized they were right. The first night, the first time someone shot at you. Your freeze up and hesitation was all the answer Spiderman needed. His eyes went wide for a moment before slowly turning to harsh disappointment.

"That's what I thought." He removed his hand and continued walking, and you felt too shaken up to follow immediately. You clinched your fists and quickly caught up, walking behind him as the few civilians walking in the rain stepped out of the way while some ran up and looked like they wanted a selfie with him.

"It was one guy, alright?" You finally spoke, but he ignored you as he posed for the selfie. You stepped out of the line of sight for the camera and pulled the hood to cover your face just to be safe, waiting for him to be done. The people thanked him and ran off, loudly talking to each other excitedly. "It was an accident-"

He stopped walking and turned towards you so quickly it nearly set off your fight or flight response. "Right. Forgot we talked about that. Accidents make _everything_ okay." His eyes narrowed and he raised his arm. "Two alleyways down, to the left. Be there." He sent out webbing and pulled himself into the air, quickly vanishing around a building corner.

Your shoulders dropped as you felt your stomach twist, remembering the dead man more now. It wasn't fair, you were just reacting to being shot at. You didn't know he would die. Venom was still so new to you, there was no way to know.

Gentle pressures made themselves known at the base of your skull, slowly and comfortingly traveling through your hair to try and sooth you. It helped a little, but you couldn't stop the guilt from building in your stomach. You were in the right. Spiderman just couldn't see it. ...Right?

 ** _Right._**

Venom confirmed and continued the soothing motions. You felt so thankful that you weren't alone with your thoughts at the moment, not thinking you would be able to handle it. You relaxed into Venom for a moment, letting the rain slowly grow lighter around you before you finally continued down the walkway. Two alleyways down and to the left. You would get your chance to better explain yourself later. Right now, you needed to see who Spiderman decided to bring with to help.

You wondered if it was one of the Avengers. Spiderman had said "he" earlier, but that didn't narrow it down much. The curiosity was eating at you the entire time you walked, but you didn't change out of your civilian outfit. If you were potentially going into an alleyway where an Avenger would be, the last thing you wanted was to start a fight with them. Heroes tended to punch first and ask questions later when it came to villains, at least on tv shows, so you thought maybe it would be best to not show up as a well known villain for a first impression.

Eventually you found the alleyway he told you of, and you started walking down it and looked around. It was a cramped alleyway; two dumpsters with more trash surrounding them than in them took up most of a wall, with an overhanging smell of bad Mexican food. You covered your nose, not that it did you much good, and continued walking down the alleyway.

"Ay, nope!" You heard a voice call up from above you, and when you looked up you saw a man in another red suit looking down at you from a fire escape. He was holding a sword- a katana? - in one of his hands while the other lowered a burrito from his mouth. He coughed and cleared his throat before casually waving the katana in your direction, as if waving you away. "This isn't the alleyway you are looking for." He said in a voice slightly imitating that guy from Star Wars.

You raised an eyebrow at the man and continued to look at him. The red suit was similar to Spiderman's, complete with large black spots around the eyes, but his suit was completely decked out with weapons. "You Spiderman's friend?" You asked, and the man tilted his head.

"You're saying that wrong." He took another bite from the burrito and tossed the rest at the dumpster. It missed and splattered onto the ground.

"We're sorry?"

"I said-" He pulled his mask back down over his mouth and leapt over the railing of the fire escape, landing on the ground with an 'ooph.' He quickly stood up and looked down at you _much_ closer than you would have preferred. "You're saying it wrong." He said again, and you could see the whites of his eyes looking concerned.

"We heard you, but… _What_ are we saying wrong?" You asked calmly, but suddenly you could feel excitement coming from Venom. They recognized the strange man.

 _"We?"_ He asked under his breath, an extra shine in his eyes appearing. "Spider-Man. See? There's supposed to be a dash there. Spider-dash-capitalized-M-Man." He put his sword back into the sheath on his back and wrote out the word in the air with his finger. "Not _Spiderman_. Gosh, look at what you've done. The writer probably realized this two chapters ago and now is suffering from anxiety about publishing the chapters before proofing something so simple." He 'tisk'ed at you, as if you could understand a word he said. He leaned down and brought a hand next to his mouth to whisper into your ear. "Don't worry, I'll start saying Spiderman so the writer doesn't have to edit anything."

"What the fuck is your problem?" You recoiled, staring wildly at the man. He stood to his height and started laughing, throwing back his head and bringing his hands to his stomach.

"Ohhh hohoho that's a good one! As if I could list everything out in a timely manner! Hehehe!" He giggled like a schoolgirl and brought a hand to wipe at a non-existent tear at his cheek. You were starting to think this really was the wrong alleyway. He suddenly stopped his giggling and you felt your hair rise as he looked back down at you, almost looking like an entirely different man. "A good laugh before a fight never hurts. Now then, let's get a good look at you." Before you could register the movement, a gun was in his hand and three rounds fired at your chest.

You gasped and stepped back, feeling Venom course over you and protect you from the bullets, quickly changing into your more monstrous form. You readied your arms to fight more, but the red suited man didn't continue shooting. Instead, he placed his hand and gun against his face Home-Alone style and gasped happily. You were too confused to attack him.

"Why- Look at you!" He excitedly skipped around you, and you were sure you either were already dead, or you lost your goddamn mind. "Long time no see, my beautiful symbiotic friend! A lot has changed since I've last seen you! So many issues, so many hosts. And not to mention the timelines! Have you partook in Venomverse yet or are we ignoring that as canon?" He asked, and you slowly managed to convince yourself that no, you weren't the one going crazy at the moment. _He,_ whoever he was, was absolutely nuts.

 ** _Deadpool!_**

Venom shocked you by knowing the mad man's name, followed quickly with bubbles of excitement. This had to be the first time Venom shown excitement for something other than food, and you wondered how the hell they knew this… Deadpool. You felt less inclined to fight him now, knowing that he wasn't just some random mad man.

"Ooph! But I see something hasn't changed! Helllllloooooooo beautiful!" You yelped as a leather gloved hand smacked onto your ass, and your inclination to fight the man rapidly changed. Whipping around, your knee swiftly connected to his groin and sent him flying into the air a few feet. He fell hard onto the concrete, landing on his hands and knees frozen. Slowly he made a sound similar to a balloon losing air as his hands ever so delicately made their way to the affected area.

"My… boys. My beautiful boys…" His voice whispered three octaves higher than it was a moment ago. He fell to his side, holding his crotch. The sound of something moving above you got your attention, and when you looked up you could see Spiderman walking down the wall.

"Ah, I see you met Deadpool. He's our backup." Spiderman said casually, as if the person in mention wasn't currently suffering from nutcracker syndrome. He almost held amusement in his eyes as he looked at the fallen man.

"You can't be serious. This is the best you got?" You asked, looking back down at the man. Deadpool held up a shaky finger.

"I'm… I'm right here." He uttered weakly.

"Everyone else is busy. Besides, he owes me one." Spiderman shrugged and dropped to the ground, looking up at you.

"So, you ready to do this?"


	8. Atelophobia

"Actually... I'm not sure if I'm ready."

The two red-suited men looked at you, one still in pain and collapsed on the concrete while the other one only narrowed his eyes. You felt dumb admitting not being ready, but you felt anxious about… actually teaming up with them to fight anyone. Like, as actual heroes. Especially at the fact that a solid plan hasn't been said out loud yet. You pulled your arms close to your body and you felt Venom pull back into your hoodie and sweatpants again while you avoided eye contact.

"You said Lee was dangerous with Venom, right?" Spiderman asked, and you could feel his eyes looking you over. You nodded. "Then we need to move quickly. We already given him a full day with that piece, we can't afford to give him any more time with it." His voice was very to the point, and you bit the inside of your cheek nervously. He's a professional hero, of course he wouldn't get why you weren't ready.

"No, yeah, _we_ agree completely." You knotted your hands together, keeping your eyes trained on the spilled burrito on the ground next to the dumpster. "It's just… This is really happening, you know? It seems really serious, and _I'm_ not a fighter. Like. At all. I put up a good bark when I'm at work but- I'm good at reacting to things that I learned to expect- but this… I don't- I'm gonna mess something up and-" You motioned weakly in the air, struggling to explain how being confrontational in an unknown situation is worse than a death sentence for you.

"Hey no, come on Nessie, we'll take care of you." Deadpool slowly stood up, still keeping a hand on his crotch as he waddled over to you and wrapped the other arm around your shoulders much more friendly than he ought to be. You shrunk at the contact, but didn't pull completely away since you could feel Venom's excitement at Deadpool being so close. "Baby Boy explained everything to me. Baddies got part of your oozy friend, and we just gotta get them back. We go in, grab them, get out. That's just three steps, nothing to worry about."

Deadpool's bad breath distracted you from your concerns, and you felt your nose wrinkle as the stink of Mexican food, body sweat, and something metallic wafted around you. You gently pushed him off of your shoulder and turned towards him, and he took a step back without looking offended, thankfully. Spiderman looked towards you, hesitating for a moment.

"Deadpool is right, well- partly. We'll take care of everything. We just have to get you in and find that Venom piece. If Lee is around, leave him to us. If you get shot at, _leave them to us._ Your only goal is to find it and escape, got it?" Spiderman explained, and you couldn't help but notice a change in how he spoke to you. It reminded you of how you talked with new players on your online games, instead of his usual accusing voice. Apparently you took too long identifying the change in tone, since Spiderman's voice went back to how it was before. _"Got it?"_ He asked again.

"Ye-yeah. We can do that." You nodded quickly and looked away.

"We might be completely overestimating what to expect too. Black Cat isn't unreasonable, she probably won't just _give_ it to us but I doubt she'll do anything too drastic if we ask for it." Spiderman added, walking towards the exit of the alleyway. "Only one way to find out. Let's go." He reached up and sent out a web, quickly pulling and throwing himself into the air and over the streets.

Venom instinctively covered you and you readied a jump to follow, but stopped and looked at Deadpool, who was currently staring unimpressed at where Spiderman vanished. He sighed as his hand patted along his belt, pulling out a flip phone. He pressed a number and put it to his ear, only to notice you watching him. "Don't worry about me! I'll be right there! I'm just calling a cab." He cheerfully said, clearly waiting for someone to pick up.

"You don't… want a ride?" You half offered, unsure. He looked a bit smaller than you now that you were with Venom properly, but you still haven't tried carrying anyone like this yet. Deadpool must not have noticed your lack of confidence, because he gasped happily and snapped the phone shut just as a voice answered the other end.

"Are ya a-offerin' a piggyback ride ta me?" He fanned himself with his hand before dramatically throwing himself in front of you. You yelped and caught him in your hands, and he brought his arms over his head and kicked a leg out. "Why~ you really is a mighty hero!" He said in a terrible southern girl accent. You blinked, staring at the madman for a moment.

"Please don't do that. I don't know how to react to this." You finally said. He ugly laughed complete with a snort as you picked him up and maneuvered him till he was at your back, and he happily wrapped his legs around your hips and grabbed around your chest. "You good?" You asked, feeling him snuggle right up against you like you were an oversized body pillow.

"Being the big spoon for such a gorgeous _beefcake_ monster like yourself? Never better." He practically purred into your ear, and you could feel yourself already starting to regret the offer. You rolled your eyes as you knelt a moment before leaping into the air, and you heard Deadpool's high-pitched scream as his grip tightened around you. A laugh escaped your lips and you started webbing through the buildings, just able to make out Spiderman already about a mile ahead. You took your time though, not wanting to go too fast and drop the extra help.

"Now I know how Ann feels!" Deadpool commented. You glanced over your shoulder to look at him.

"Who?"

"You know. Ann Darrow." He clarified, not clearing anything up in the slightest. You shook your head and turned your attention back to your path. "King Kong! Gosh! The youth these days!" He threw one of his arms up and dramatically kicked out with exasperation, only to yell as he almost lost his grip on you and pull himself close once more. He seemed far too comfortable with you and Venom already, and you weren't sure if you were totally okay with it.

 ** _He knows us. Wore us before._**

Venom explained, and you reacted at that. "He was a host?" You asked, realizing you were asking out loud before you could catch yourself. Deadpool must have heard since he made an effort to bring his head more on your shoulder so he didn't have to speak as loud over the sound of rushing air.

"Fuck yeah I was. We 'Twipped' all over the damn place, ate some aliens, exploded some rabbits… Wait, I don't think that last one was us." He thought out loud, and you couldn't stop feeling Venom's infatuation with his words. Warm bubbly feelings spotted along your neck and jaw, feeling almost like a misplaced blush. It left your chest feeling cold, and you didn't like it.

"So… You two were close?" You asked, trying to keep your feelings under check. You were _not_ going to feel jealous of a madman. Though you wondered why Venom hasn't shown you any of Deadpool's memories before, if he was actually a host. Blackness filled your vision, and quick flashes of washed out hazy images of Deadpool in a black and grey suit appeared. But they shifted, and warped, vanishing quickly after and leaving you feeling a longing for something you didn't know.

"Well I wouldn't say that. We had our fun, but I had to break up with them when they wanted to kill my bro Spidey. Almost had something good going, was a shame they couldn't get over the whole murder thing." You could feel Deadpool shrug against your back. "Nice to see that they finally did."

Satisfaction from the slight praise leaked into your brain, and you found yourself happy with what Deadpool said. Then you reminded yourself that you were trying to be jealous of him- wait, no that wasn't right _either_. Agh, your brain was scrambled through all the mixed thoughts and feelings.

 ** _It's okay. We are here. Don't think so much._**

Venom quietly hushed your thoughts, and you felt tension you didn't know you were holding suddenly leave your shoulders. Deadpool's grip tightened and you could feel his worry as he looked down below at the traffic. "Whoa you okay there? You're not going to pass out are you?" He asked, apparently feeling you relax as well.

"What? No, we're fine." You said, not acknowledging any change and continuing to follow the speck of Spiderman in the distance. Black Cat's building had to be close at this point. It was on the outskirts of the city, but you still didn't have much sense of the scale of New York when you were with Venom yet.

"Good. Not like I can die anyway, but I still do _not_ like the idea of falling at this height and having you crush me. No offence." He explained. The visual of your hulking mass slamming Deadpool into the sidewalk was rather graphic in your mind.

"None taken." You replied before the rest of his sentence registered in your brain. "You can't die?" Figures that Spiderman would find a super to help out, but you didn't know 'not dying' was a super power. You would think you would know a super hero's name if they were that powerful.

"Healing factor baby! Best of it's kind! Lab made Grade A immortality, ribbed for your pleasure." Deadpool's voice deepened at the last bit, and you couldn't help but to stifle a laugh. He either had no sense of boundaries, or couldn't care less about them. Either way, you figured it would be best to get used to it quickly if the three of you were going to be working together. Deadpool must have heard the laugh and quickly brought his head close again.

"Was that a laugh I just heard? Oh I'm so excited! We'll get along just great." He pressed his masked face next to yours and out of nowhere his hand held the flip phone in front of you, quickly taking a selfie. The bright flash from the flip phone caused you to quickly blink, trying to keep yourself maintaining the webbing pattern despite being blinded for a few seconds. "Oh! Sorry, flash!" He clicked a button and held the phone right in front of your eyes to see the low quality photo. Your monstrous face was half cropped off, and Deadpool was holding up a peace symbol with his other hand next to his face.

"Sorry, we're trying to… Uh… Drive?" You tried to excuse, angling your head so you could make sure your webs were actually hitting their mark. Deadpool nodded with understanding, adjusting his grip on you so both of his arms rested next to your neck as he started tapping on his phone. You glanced down, seeing him put a small black bar across the picture and type "NEW BFFS" on it in white text.

"Is that… Hold on, you have Snapchat on a fucking _flip phone_?" You asked, having trouble watching where you web and looking back down at the screen, which yes, it appeared to be a shitty version of the app. "How is that even possible?"

"Deadpool always finds a way." He dramatically said, adding the finishing touches and snapping the phone shut with a clack. You shook your head, not quite knowing what to think. Thankfully you saw Black Cat's tower finally show up, and Spiderman jump up on the building next to it. You followed behind, scaling the towers quickly before landing heavily on the roof next to Spiderman.

Deadpool's legs loosened around your hips, and he fell flat onto the roof with an "ow." Spiderman looked at the two of you, nodded, and looked back to Black Cat's windows.

"Did you have a nice swing over?" You asked Spiderman, letting Venom pull back into civvies once more as you looked at the other building as well. The way the sun was shining made it hard to see into the building though. You heard Deadpool pick himself up behind you, followed by the sound of metal clicking together. When you turned to see what the sound was, you saw him putting together a sniper rifle. Your eyes widened.

"Uninterrupted, so not bad. You?" Spiderman's voice didn't sound actually interested in the conversation, and when you looked back at him you could see the black of his mask eyes were adjusting bigger and smaller, as if they were a camera lens. Did he have zoom on those things? Probably. Before you could answer the question, his eyes changed back to usual. "Black Cat is in her room, three guards with her."

Deadpool set up the sniper rifle on the edge of the building and knelt, looking through the scope to see. "Gotcha. So you go in and ask nicely. We'll be here if things go to shit." Spiderman nodded with the plan, looking down at Deadpool and apparently just noticing the gun.

"Those better be rubber bullets." He said flatly and stared at Deadpool. There was a moment of silence, followed by a clicking coming from the gun. The magazine fell to the ground, along with a very normal looking bullet. Deadpool sighed and replaced it with a different clip, pulling back the bolt again. "Good." How casual that interaction was drew your attention, and you found yourself looking at all of the pockets, swords, and other guns Deadpool was holding on his person. Hold on a fucking second.

"Deadpool?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you… a hero?" You asked, needing confirmation for something.

"Pfft. No. I sure as shit try on occasion, especially if it means impressing Baby Boy over there, but being a Merc is just so much more profitable. Not to mention fun." He quickly said, shifting his pose to look over the building some more. You looked to Spiderman, who looked like he knew where you were going with this.

"Huh. You keep track of how many you've killed?" You asked, not looking away from Spiderman to see his reaction.

"Oooooh no, we don't K-word around here." Deadpool wagged a finger in the air, and you felt confused. "No no no… the proper term is _un-aliveing._ We un-alived… pfft. Hundreds of people. Probably well into the thousands if you are including space adventures and the alternate realities I've fucked up. I've lost track yeaaaaaaars ago, I'm sure only Lady Death knows the actual score at this point." He concluded, in no way sounding like he was bragging.

You tilted your head and felt your lips thin in the "I'm not going to say anything but you know I really want to" smile as you looked at Spiderman with slightly widened eyes. His eyes narrowed as you bought up your hand, held up a single finger, mouthed the word "one" and pointed to yourself. The two of you were going to need to have a talk about double standards later.

He silently and quickly stepped onto the ledge of the building, apparently choosing to not address your silent accusation. "I'll talk to Black Cat. Look for my signal." Spiderman said, quickly jumping off the roof and swinging to the other tower. You sat on the ground beside Deadpool and crossed your legs, watching him start to climb up the windows. He took his time, apparently not wanting to set them on high alert right away.

Deadpool was the most quiet you've heard since meeting him, to the point you couldn't even make out his breathing as he watched carefully through the scope. You weren't able to see as closely as he could, but you watched as Spiderman got to the proper level and… knocked on the glass. Wow, okay, you thought him being a professional hero would give him some self-preservation skills but apparently not. You could make out shadows beyond the glass rush over to where he was, something shiny being raised to the glass, but one of the shadows moved and the rest stopped.

"What's going on?" You whispered to Deadpool, hoping he could actually make something out.

"The guards were ready to attack Spidey, but Cat hushed them." He narrated, and you watched as the large shadows took a step further into the room and vanished from your sight. "They're talking through the glass… I think Cat said the word 'watermelon' and pointed toooooo…. Ah, a sliding window. Looks like my boy is gonna get some tail after all." Deadpool's voice jumped from being semi-serious to his usual voice in seconds, and you bit back a laugh. You didn't want to entertain his humor, fearing that he might get distracted easily. He shifted his grip on the gun, following Spiderman carefully.

Spiderman crawled along the outside of the window, quickly making his way to the one that opened up, and slipped inside. Now you couldn't make out anything on your own. "They're talking… Can't make out a word Spidey-Boy is saying, stupid mask, but Cat is _definitely_ flirting right now." Deadpool let out a whistle, and you couldn't tell if he was being honest or… being Deadpool.

 ** _Probably both._**

Venom helpfully said. You waited for Deadpool to continue narrating, but he went silent. There wasn't anything for you to do other than stare at the hazy glare coming from the windows, quietly waiting for anything to happen. You folded your arms on the ledge and rested your chin on them, quickly growing bored. You waited, and waited… and waited…

Deadpool stood up and quickly took the sniper rifle apart in seconds, shoving the pieces in a bag and strapping it around him. "Time to move. Get us over there." He quickly said, and you nearly tripped over yourself in standing too fast. Venom coated you at a thought and your massive hand clutched Deadpool against your chest, and you leapt the distance.

"In or on top?" You asked quickly, hoping the question was clear enough as you webbed yourself higher. Deadpool pulled out two pistols from his sides and got ready.

"In." He answered, and you let go of the web, angling yourself to break through the window back-first. You instinctively curled around Deadpool as you crashed through the glass, sending shards flying everywhere. The impact didn't feel like much to you, thanks to Venom no doubt, and you released Deadpool as you landed heavily on the floor on your back.

Deadpool quickly leapt up and skid across the glass ridden marble flooring, firing across the room. You pulled yourself up from the floor, only to feel your shoulder splatter slightly when half a dozen bullets collided into it. You turned towards the source, seeing three large men in overly expensive suits shooting at you. One of them yelled and fell to the ground, clutching his shoulder, while the others continued shooting and backing towards the hallway. Feeling a growl escape your lips, you stepped towards them, completely ignoring the bullets.

They were nothing to you anyway.

You leapt forward, feeling tendrils extend from your fingers as you snaked them around the two guards, yanking them back into the room and slamming them into the ground. One of them kept his finger on the trigger of his gun, sending a shower of bullets around the room and breaking a couple antique looking pots, a mirror, and most of the surviving windows. You pulled and slammed them against a wall, and one of them was knocked out cold. The other one struggled with your tendrils for a moment, before a gun went off and he went limp in your grip.

Confusion filled your brain as you turned to Deadpool, only for pain to replace it as Venom screamed throughout your body. You clutched at your ears as you fell to your knees, feeling Venom's grip on you loosen but struggle to keep you protected. It took you a moment to register that you were screaming right along with Venom. The pain suddenly vanished and you gasped out, falling onto your hands. You watched Venom's tendrils quickly climb back up the upper portion of your chest, covering your head once more.

"Sorry 'bout that Nessie, but you heard the man. You gotta leave them to us." Deadpool said, and you whipped your head to look at him standing next to you. He dropped an air horn onto the ground and kicked it behind him casually. Confusion and anger flooded your system as you stared up at him.

 ** _Deadpool hurt us?_**

"That hurt." You spoke through your teeth, but the only pain still lingering behind was Venom's emotional damage of being betrayed by Deadpool. It kept stumbling into itself, repeating in a feedback loop of denying Deadpool would do that to them, followed by the rage of the fact he did, and again with rejecting the idea.

"Consider it your spanking. Don't hulk out here, Baby Cakes. We need you behind us, finding that piece. If you go into a rage here, you will only cement your name on Spidey-Boy's naughty list." He explained coldly despite his usual playful words. Deadpool turned his attention to the door and walked towards it, readying his guns again and leaving his back exposed to you. It was hard to stop Venom's hurt thoughts from overriding your own, but you had to pull it together. He was right, even if it wasn't very… agreeable how he brought it to your attention.

Deadpool glanced back to you and shook his head. "I'm serious Sugar Bear, you need to hulk _down._ I know your gooey friend likes being big, but you need to stop being such an open target right _now_." He motioned downwards with his gun, and conflicting instincts fought in your head. The bigger you were, the safer you were. More cushion room, more room for bigger damage. But no, smaller was safer, less noticeable. You needed to not be a target, but you knew you were a target already, so that just made it more dangerous. And you couldn't trust someone that just exposed you-

You groaned and grabbed at your head, feeling far too overheated and over stimulated from everything going on. "Please… Just listen to him." You uttered, unable to keep up with the racing thoughts. All at once your brain quieted, and you felt Venom gradually deflate, shrinking close to your skin. They still kept you coated, still protected, but from what you could see your suit looked less like usual Venom and more like the black Spiderman suit from before.

 ** _Don't like this._**

"I know, just… please. We just need to do what he says for now." You whispered, feeling Venom's fear and hurt and anger swell and twist inside you. They were so fragile, and you could feel _everything_. You just wanted to get the piece back so the two of you could get away from all of this and never have to deal with it again.

"You good now? Because we really need to _move._ " Deadpool's voice rose as he appeared beside you, picking you up and tossing you onto his shoulder. He ran out of the door, firing off at targets you couldn't see. You just covered your head and closed your eyes, focusing on the large shoulder pad that was currently jabbing itself in your stomach with every jarring step Deadpool took.

"What happened to Spiderman?" You asked weakly, trying to get your thoughts onto anything _other_ than what Venom was thinking. It was a valid question, now that you managed to focus on it. How did a friendly conversation through a window lead to needing to break in and having a firefight?

"Don't know." Deadpool answered, making sure to hold onto you tight as he turned a hallway corner and fired off his guns. "Spidey left a spider on the window when he crawled in. He and Cat talked and she led him out of the room. Then the spider started flashing red, figured something was up." He stopped running and messed with his belt, and you heard a clicking sound that you've only ever heard in video games before.

"Another one. Hold on." He uttered, throwing something and spun around a corner, pressing the two of you flat to the wall for a moment. Three seconds ticked by and an explosion rattled the place, sending white dust flying into the air. Deadpool adjusted his grip on you and started running again, and you felt your stomach drop when he suddenly leapt. He grunted as the two of you jerked and swung around quickly, and the grunt echoed back to you. Finally opening your eyes, you saw the darkness of an open elevator shaft greet you. One, which you were apparently dangling in the middle of. A yelp got caught in your throat, and Deadpool started sliding down the cable with speed and control.

He was way too good at this.

Deadpool kept quiet as the two of you rushed down, levels flying by leaving you questioning how tall you thought this building was again. Eventually the blackness below you gave way to what looked like the top of an elevator, and Deadpool slowed your decent before dropping down the rest of the way. He picked you off of his shoulder and stood you up, giving you only a moment to steady yourself before his fingers traced along panels on top of the elevator. He caught ahold of one of them, yanking it up to reveal that it was unoccupied.

He glanced inside, quickly looking around to double check that it was actually empty, and held out his hands to you. Getting the idea, you grabbed them and helped drop him in, before following quickly behind. "Be ready." He said, finger hovering over the 'open doors' button. Deadpool pressed it and readied his guns at the door, and you flattened yourself against the side wall and closed your eyes as the metal gradually opened.

When no gunshots went off, you opened your eyes to see a confused looking Deadpool looking into the room.

"Oh, you got my signal. Good." Spiderman's voice spoke up, and you peeked out your head to see Spiderman and Black Cat casually standing in a rather elegant looking office room. They were both standing next to a large white table that had files laying on it messily, with no one else standing by. No immediate danger, no signs of any struggle.

Deadpool lowered his guns, pausing a moment, and casually placing them back into their holsters. "Right. Your signal. To…" He talked slowly, stepping into the room and glancing up at the small camera that seemed to follow his movement.

"To… come in?" Spiderman filled, uneasiness leaking into his voice. "Like you did. Right?" He looked at the two of you closer, how you kept tucked in the elevator as if waiting for something bad to happen, and probably noticing the white residue that was dusting the both of you. _"Right?"_

"Of course! We are here, aren't we?" Deadpool laughed, bringing his hands behind his head casually as he stepped along side the table. "So what do we have?" He tried to change the subject. A beeping came from Black Cat's wrist, and she pressed a button and looked at it close.

"Why am I getting alerts of being invaded?" Her eyes looked up at Deadpool, not needing to have that question answered. Another beeping drew her attention, and at another button press a holographic image of her room appeared, absolutely and utterly shagged from the destruction. A horrified gasped wheezed from her as the damage registered, and you decided that maybe staying in your hiding spot in the elevator was a smart choice at the moment.

"My trophies! My room! You-"

"Will pay for everything! I have the money!" Deadpool quickly yelped, un-heroically diving under a chair and using it as a cheap plastic shield for his body. It wasn't needed, as she didn't immediately attack, but the air was incredibly thick with tension that felt like it would snap at any moment.

Spiderman looked at the hologram, turning towards your direction. You ducked further into the corner of the elevator. "Did Venom-"

"Be completely useless in a gunfight? You bet your ass. All they did was watch me do all the hard work for them." Deadpool's irritated voice convinced even you for a moment. "I know you told them to stay back, but the least you could do is tell them to watch my back while they are at it." He half mumbled, sounding like the most genuine annoyance you've ever heard. Black Cat's stare intensified at the mention of the gunfight, and Deadpool raised his hands. "I used rubber bullets! The special kind that Baby Boy likes! No casualties!"

What Deadpool first said seemed to shock Spiderman, and he stood looking towards you for a moment with unreadable body expression. Black Cat didn't care for any of the new developments and brought a hand to her face as she groaned.

"Just… Take the files and leave. Except-" She looked back at Deadpool, who squeaked and partially hid behind the chair again. "-I expect compensation to be in my bank account within the hour."

.

The three of you were escorted out of the tower, and Deadpool was handed a bill that made him sound like he was kicked in the balls again. You only got a glance at the number, but your eyes must have been fooling you. No way that many zeros could exist on a bill at the same time.

After helping bring Deadpool out of shock, Spiderman led the three of you to another rooftop to review the files. They were all mostly empty except for a few pages written in typewriter and a couple pictures, but you got the general idea of an old secret lab somewhere in the Mojave Desert.

"This all looks familiar… I can't pin it though." Spiderman mumbled into his hand, looking at one of the black and white photos of a large room full of old-tech computers. "Felicia said that Lee needed information on this place, but I can't imagine why. This place has been shut down due to an onsite explosion years ago." Deadpool grabbed the photo from Spiderman and looked it over again, looking for something they missed.

"What did you say this place was called again?" Deadpool asked, squinting at something in the background of the photo.

"The Life Foundation."


End file.
